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MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



JOHN EDWARD KENNA 

(A SENATOR FROM WEST VIRGINIA), 



HEI.lVEREl) IN THE 



SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



February 27 and March 2, 1893. 



I'UKI.ISHEU BY ORDER (JK CONGRESS. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1893. 






Resolved I"/ thi Houseof Representatives (tin Senate concurring), Thatthere 
he printed of the eulogies delivered in Congress npou the Hon. .ImiN E. 
Kknna. late a Senator from tin- State of Wesl Virginia, 8,000 copies, of 
wlfich 2,000 copies shall be delivered to the Senators and Representatives 
of that State, and of the remaining number, 2.000 shall be for the use of 
the Senate and 4,000 copies for the use of the House; and of the quota of 
the Senate the Public Printer shall set aside 50 copies, which he shall have 
hi mud in full morocco with silt edges, the same to be delivered, when com- 
pleted, tn the family of the deceased; and the Secretary of the Treasury is 
hereby directed to have engraved and printed, at the earliest day practi- 
cable, a portrait of the deceased to accompany such eulogies. 



J«dg© »nd Mr s . ! £aa c R. 
No v . 17, 1931 



CONTEXTS 



Page. 

Biographical sketch of Senator Kenna 5 

Announcements of his death : 

In the Senate 11 

In the House of Representatives II 

Funeral ceremonies in the Senate Chamber 10 

Sermon of Bishop Keane 23 

Proceedings at Charleston, West Virginia. 

Action of the legislature 20 

Funeral services 32 

Act providing for a statue 37 

Proceedings in the Senate. 

Address of Mr. Faulkner, of West Virginia 30 

Mr. Frye, of Maine 51 

Mr. Gorman, of Maryland 56 

Mr. Blackburn, of Kentucky 6] 

Mr. Cullom, of Illinois 64 

Mr. Gray, of Delaware 67 

Mr. Vest, of Missouri 70 

Mr. Stewart, of Nevada 71 

Mr. Daniel, of Virginia 73 

Mr. Hawley , of Connecticut 70 

Mr. ( 'amden, of West Virginia 80 

Proceedings in the House of Representatives. 

Address of Mr. Alderson, of West Virginia NO 

Mr. Bingham, of Pennsylvania 95 

Mr. Hooker, of Mississippi 07 

Mr. Wilson, of Missouri 108 

Mr. Pendleton, of West Virginia Ill 

Mr. Covert, of New York Ill 

Mr. Caruth. of Kentucky 117 

Mr. Fellows, of New York 122 

Mr. Springer, of Illinois 121 

Mr, Mansur, of Missouri 126 

Mr. Wilson, of West Virginia 131 

3 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

John Edward Kenna, Senator from West Virginia, died 
at his residence, No. 130 B street northeast, Washington, D. 
C, about 3 o'clock a. m., January 11, 1893. 

For several years he had been a sufferer from the disease — 
an enlargement of the heart — which terminated fatally. His 
death, while not wholly unexpected, came with the sudden 
ness of a great shock to friends who had cherished the hope 
that an improvement in his condition which was noticed a few 
days before the end came would at least prolong his life if. 
indeed, it did not lead to a permanent recovery. 

Mr. Kenna was born in Valcoulon, Kanawha County, Vir- 
ginia (now West Virginia), April 10, 1818. His father. Edward 
Kenna, a native of Ireland, came to the United States when 11 
years of age and secured employment at Natchez, Miss., subse- 
quently removing to Cincinnati, Ohio, where, after a brief busi- 
ness experience, he began the study of the law. In 1817 Edward 
Kenna married Margery, the only daughter of John Lewis, (if 
Kanawha County. Va., a grandson of Gen. Andrew Lewis, 
a man famous in the early history of Virginia and one of a 
family of marked distinction in the annals of the Old Dominion. 
This marriage led to Mr. Kenna's removal to Kanawha County, 
Va., where he successfully pursued the practice of the law and 
gained an extended reputation as a public speaker. In 1850, 
when only 39 years of age, he died, leaving three children, two 
daughters and one son, John Edward Kenna. aged eight 
years. Left in straitened circumstances. Mrs. Kenna removed, 

5 



I] Biographical Sketch. 

in 1858, to -Missouri, where her brother resided. Residing 
upon a farm in a section not then developed, young Kknna 
had few opportunities for acquiring an education. He worked 
on a farm with Mr. Lewis, his uncle, and in alter years referred 
to the fact that lie could look with pride upon one of the finesl 
plantations in .Missouri which he had helped to redeem from 
its natural state with a prairie plow and four yoke of oxen 
when he was but eleven years of age. 

When sixteen years of age Mr. Kknna enlisted in the Con- 
federate army and followed its fortunes to the end of the war. 
While serving in (leu. Shelby's brigade he was badly wounded 
in the shoulder and arm. but declined to be retired on account 
of his wounds and continued in active service. One who has 
written with true appreciation of his character says of this 
period of his life: "In all the constant and pressing march. 
though but Hi years of age and suffering from his wounds, he 
never failed of a task that any other soldier performed and 
never lost a daj from active sen ice." The command to which 
he was attached retreated from Missouri into Arkansas, 
encountering hardships that are indescribable. The severe 
exposures of the hurried march could not break the spirit of the 
young soldier, but they caused a serious illness, and he was 
taken to a hospital where he lay in a dangerous condition for 
six months. He rejoined his command in June, 1865, and was 
surrendered to the Federal forces at Shreveport, La. < >ne who 
served with him remembers the handsome youth, bold and 
ardent of temperament, manly beyond his years, a general 
favorite, the life of the camp. None took more pride in his 
subsequent career than those who were his comrades in those 
arduous campaigns in Missouri and Arkansas. 

Returning to his native county of Kanawha, to which his 
ther had returned. Mr. Kjenna obtained employment at salt- 
making;. I'>nt he wanted to do better: he had a desire to rise 



Biographical Sketch, 7 

in the world. Realizing the incompleteness of Ms education, 
through the assistance of kind friends, chief of whom was 
Bishop E. V. Whelan, lie entered St. Vincent's Academy a1 
Wheeling, and by diligent study acquired in the course of less 
than three years a knowledge of books sufficient to enable him 
to pursue his studies at home. After leaving school, in L868, 
Mr. Kenna studied law in the office of Miller & Quarrier, at 
Charleston. W. Va., and was admitted to the bar in 1870. He 
rose rapidly in his profession. In 1872 he was nominated by 
the Democratic party and elected to the office of prosecuting 
attorney of Kanawha ( 'ounty, rendering in that important office 
efficient service. The duties of prosecuting attorney in one of 
the most populous counties of the state tried the qualities of 
the young lawyer, but he was equal to every test, and obtained 
a wider recognition of the powers which those who knew him 
intimately felt sure needed only the < ccasion to call them forth. 
In 1875 Mr. Kenna was elected judge pro 1cm. of the circuit 
court, and discharged the difficult duties of the office in a 
manner that addeil to his already well-merited reputation for 
industry and legal ability. 

In 1876 Mr. Kenna was nominated by the Democrats of the 
Third district of West Virginia as their candidate for ( Jongress, 
defeating men much older in years ami of acknowledged abil- 
ity and popularity. He was duly elected and entered < iongress, 
the youngest member of that body. His aptitude for legisla- 
tive duties was quickly discerned by Speaker Randall, who 
assigned him to service on important committees, and by other 
leaders, and it was not long before he became one of the most 
influential members of the House of Representatives, lie was 
reelected in lsTS, in 18*0, and 1882. Before the beginning ol 
the term for which he had been last chosen he was elected to 
the United States Senate, in 1883, to succeed Hon. Henry G. 
Davis, and took his seat December •">, 1S83, and was reelected 



8 Biographical SkeU h. 

in 1889 for the term ending March '■'<. 1895. When he entered 
the Senate he was, as he had been in the House, the youngest 
member of the body.- 

Mr. Kenna "developed at the very threshold of legislative 
life," said the writer previously quoted, "an aptness for it, and 
a coolness of judgment meriting the testimonials he received 
from other members, and from many of liis constituents. He 
never spoke except when he had something to say. His splendid 
physique — standing full <i feet — his smooth diction and clear 
enunciation, and Ins self-poise never failed to attract attention 
and command respect. His growth, after the full six years he 
served in the House, was continuous and steady. Hut few who 
sen ed continuously with him developed as rapidly. He always 
represented the progressive, liberal, and vigorous element of 
his party, and consequently holds the respect of those aggres- 
sive working members of his own party and the esteem of his 
political opponents in legislative councils." 

During Mr. Kenna's service' in the House of Representatives 
and in the Senate he took part in many great debates and aided 
in shaping much important legislation. His service in the 
House will be forever identified with the legislation in connec- 
tion with the regulation of interstate commerce, and particu- 
larly « it li the acts providing for the improvement of the navi- 
gation of the rivers of his native State. The development of 
the resources of West Virginia, through the improvement of 
the means of transportation by water, was to him a cherished 
project to which he devoted unremitting labor. The results 
already attained and the grander ones yet to be realized will 
keep in constant remembrance his Congressional service. In 
the Senate his masterly ami exhaustive speech on the power of 
the President to remove officers without giving to the Senate 
the reasons for his action will preserve in imperishable records 
the fame of John K. Kknna as an orator and constitutional 



Biographical Sketch. 9 

lawyer. (Fortius speech see Congressional Record of Marcli 
12. 1886, vol. 17. part 3, page 2328.) 

Mr. Kbnna was a singularly gifted man. Handsome of 

person, witli attractive countenance and pleasing voice; witli 
an intellect naturally strong and cultivated not alone by the 
study of the books but of men in the varied walks of life; a 
lawyer learned in the great principles of his profession; quick, 
logical, and forcible in debate, he was a man to command at- 
tention before any audience. Behind all was the character 
pure, sincere, earnest that gave weight, as no words alone, 
however eloquent, could do, to every utterance that he made. 
But it was in the simplicity and generosity of his character 
and the nobility of his nature that Mr. Kenna was preemi- 
nent. He was most rich in hi* capacity for friendship. All 
who came to know the man became his friends. His frank 
nature, his ready sympathy, his unpretentious manners, coin 
bined to make a personality so winning upon the affections 
that no man was more loved in life or has been more mourned 
in death. 

He was a man close to the people. He mingled with them 
in their daily avocations, participated in their sports, joyed 
with them in their joys, and sorrowed with them iu their sor- 
rows. It was his delight to go far from the crowded marts 
of meu and with gun and rod to hunt and fish among the 
mountains of his State. He delighted in the beauties of 
nature; the streams and forests and mountains were dear to 
him; his sympathies were as boundless as the sky. 

The illness winch caused Mr. Kenna's death was borne with 
characteristic fortitude. He never lost hope and was always 
brave, patient, cheerful. When the announcement of his 
death was made there was universal sorrow. Evidences of 
grief were apparent on all sides. Estimates of his services 
and character were gathered bythe newspapers from men who 



1 1 ' Biographical Skt 'tch. 

had known him, and editorials, stating the truth in what may 
seem to some the extravagant language of eulogy, were pub- 
lished in many papers. All agreed that the country had suf 
fered a great loss, that a noble spirit had passed from earth. 
The Washington Post said: 

The seal in the United States Senate made vacant by the death of John 
E. Kknna. of West. Virginia, will no doubt be worthily filled, but never 
bj one of oobler qualities or mure lovable character than his. His friend- 
ships were limited only by the number of those who knew him; his kindli- 
ness of heart was measured only by the bounds of human sympathy ; his 
sense of honor was cast in a chivalric mold, and his walk and conversation 
were those of an honorable and high-minded gentleman. Not only, how- 
ever, were Mr. Kexxa's personal attributes peculiarly attractive, but he 
possessed abilities of a high order. He was a man of clear intellectual 
perceptions, of high attainments, and honest, patriotic purpose, well versed 
in public questions, and capable of supporting his positions with cogent 
and impressive argument, if not with brilliancy of rhetoric. Though one 
of the youngest of Senators, he enjoyed the confidence and respect of all. 
and on both sides i In- Chamber his loss will he profoundly feltand sincerely 
lamented. 

His body was borne to the Capitol and funeral ceremonies 
held in the Senate Chamber. A committee from the legisla- 
ture of West Virginia was present to represent the people 
whom he had so long served in Congress. The ceremonies 
were attended by the .Senate and House of Representatives, 
the President and the members of his Cabinet, the lead- 
in," officials of the Government, and the diplomatic, corps. 
When the impressive ceremonies in the Senate Chamber were 
concluded the body, accompanied by the bereaved family, and 
the committees of the two Houses of Congress anil of the legis- 
lature of West Virginia, was borne to the railroad station 
and placed on a special train to be carried to Charleston, 
W. \'a.. the late home of the deceased Senator, where the inter- 
ment was made. 



ANNOUNCEMENTS 



Death of Senator Kenna. 



IN THE SENATE. 



Wednesday, January 11, 1S93. 

Rev. J. G. Butler, d. d., the Chaplain of the Senate, offered 
the following prayer: 

O, Thou, who livest and reignest forever, the everlasting God, 
our Maker, in Whom we live and move and have our being, we 
come humbly and reverently into Thy presence as we stand 
again in the shadow of death. We thank Thee for this faith- 
ful and useful life. We bless Thee for its patience in suffering 
and for the peace and quiet of its eud. We remember before 
Thee the home bereft. Do Thou sustain and comfort and sanc- 
tify. O, that the peace of God may dwell- there, in the midst 
of the great darkness. 

Teach us heavenly wisdom. Thou art reminding us that there 
is but a step between us and death, that our life is only a vapor. 
Help us so to live day by day in the fear of God and in the 
service of men. keeping our own consciences right, that when- 
ever labor and care and anxiety and joy and sorrow shall cease 
we may be prepared to fall asleep and to enter into rest. 

u 



12 Announcements of the Death of Senator Kenna. 

<). Thou, who li vest and wast dead and art alive forevermore, 
the abolisher of death, our only Saviour, our eve is toward 
Thee. We pray Thee lead us all through this pilgrim way 
over which the shadow of death is so often thrown. We thank 
Thee for light from heaven, and we pray Thee give unto us 
inspiration that our lives may be so .restrained and fashioned 
and molded that they may he made a blessing to men and that 
(lod may he honored in our living. 

Bless us in our families; bless us in our public and social 
relations; and help us everywhere to walk in the fear and love 
of the Lord, delivered from all uncharitableness one toward 
the other. We ask these mercies with forgiveness ami grace, 
in Jesus' name. Amen. 

The Journal of yesterday's proceedings was read and 
approved. 

DEATH OF SENATOR KENNA. 

Mr. Blackburn. Mr. President, it lias never fallen to the 
lot of man to deliver a sadder message than 1 now bear to the 
Senate < 'hamber. 

Because of the absence from this city of Mr. Faulkner, a, 
Senator from the State of West Virginia, the painful duty 
devolves upon me to announce to this body that John E. 
Kenx \. late a Senator from that State, died in this city in the 
early hours of this morning. After a long" and lingering ill 
ncss. during which the fatal malady of which he was the "victim 
made steady and relentless progress, the end came. About .'5 
o'clock this morning, surrounded by his wife and family, he 
ceased to live, and the soul of the meat Senator passed behind 
the veil and made its entry into the realms of that unknown 
world. 

In the lace of this fresh and mighty sorrow the tongue fails 
and refuses to speak thai which wells up in the heart for 



Announcements of the Death oj Senator Kenna. 13 

utterance. Measured by years, he was one of the youngest 
members in this Chamber, not yet 45 years of age; but meas- 
ured by the accomplishments of his life, he ranked with the 
octogenarian. Whether as soldier or as citizen, as husband, 
father, or friend, he had rounded out a life and leaves behind 
him a record to challenge the approval of mankind. Measured 
as a lawyer or a lawmaker, lie left his impress upon the genera 
tion to which he belonged. He has engraven in ineffaceable 
characters upon the history of his country his achievements 
here and in the other branch of the National Legislature. 
Kindly as a woman, unselfish to a fault, brave and unflinching 
in the discharge of every duty, it has never been my good 
fortune to come in contact with a nature more lovable, more 
exalted, than was that of our dead comrade. 

I will not, Mr. President, trust myself to speak of him now. 
At some day in the early future the Senate, in obedience to 
its appropriate and honored custom, will set apart a day when 
tributes may be paid, by those who knew him and loved him, 
to his memory. Till then I will content myself by asking the 
present consideration of the resolutions 1 send to the desk. 

The Vice-President. The resolutions will be read. 

The Chief Clerk read the resolutions, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with great Borrow of the death of 
tin' linn. John E. Kenna, late a Senator from the State of West Virginia. 

Resolved, That a committee of seven Senators be appointed by theVice- 
President to take order lor superintending the funeral of .Mr. Kenna, 
which will rake place to-morrow, Thursday, in the Senate Chamber, at 1 
o'clock p. in., and that the Senate will attend the same. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect entertained by the Senate 
for his memory, his remaius he removed from Washington to West Vir- 
ginia in charge of the Sergeant-at-Arms, and attended by the committee, 
who shall have full power to carry this resolution into effect. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these proceedings to the House 
of Representatives, and invite the House of Representatives to attend the 
funeral to-morrow, Thursday, at 1 o'clock p. m.. and to appoint a com- 
mittee to act with the committee of the Senate, 



14 . \nnouncements of the Death of Senator Kama. 

The Vice-President. The question is mi agreeing to the 
resolutions. 

The resolutions were agreed to unanimously. 

The Vice-President appointed as the committee under the 
second resolution Mr. Faulkner, Mr. Blackburn, Mr. Ran- 
som, Mr. Daniel, Mr. AValthall, Mr. Manderson, and Mr. 
Squire. 

Mr. Blackburn. Mr. President, 1 ask for the considera- 
tion of the resolutions I now send to the desk. 

The Vice-President. The resolutions will be read. 

The resolutions were read, as follows: 

Resolved, That invitations be extended to the President of the United 
States and the members of his Cabinet, the Chief Justice and the associ- 
ate justices of the' Supreme Court of the United States, the diplomatic 
corps, the Major-General Commanding the Army, and the Senior Admiral 
of the Navy to attend the funeral of the Hou. John E. Kknna, late a Sen- 
ator from the State of West Virginia, in the Senate ( lhamber, to-morrow. 
Thursday, at 1 o'clock p. in. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect the Senate do now adjourn. 

The Vice-President. The question is on agreeing to the 

resolutions. 

The resolutions were agreed to unanimously; and (at L2 
o'clock and 15 minutes p. in.) the Senate adjourned until 
tomorrow. Thursday, January 12, 1893, at 12 o'clock meridian. 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

Wednesday, January 11. 1893. 

The House met at L2 o'clock m. The Chaplain, Rev. AY. 11. 
Milburn, i>. d., offered the following prayer: 

O, eternal God! as the knell once more sounds through the 
Capitol, and the saddening intelligence comes to us that a 
distinguished Senator and a man once prominent on this floor 
have finished then earthly journeys and gone to the solemn 



Announcements of the Death of Senator fCenna. lo 

tribunal of Thy presence, we pray thai the lesson taught lis 
may come home to every heart. ; 'A11 tlesli is mass, and all 
the goodliness thereof is as the flower <>t' the field. The grass 
withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall 
stand forever." 

Hear our humble and earnest petitions in behalf of the wife 
and children of the Senator and of the children of the general. 
and comfort them, we pray Thee, by the consolations of Thy 
word and of Thy Holy Spirit. Let all who are in trouble and 
distress receive the benediction of Thy grace and the sunshine 
of the truth of Thy word. Prepare us all for the solemn change 
whenever it shall come; and at the end may we. quietly pass 
to that rest which Thou hast prepared for Thy people. We 
pray through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen. 

# # * # # 

MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. 

A message from the Senate, by Mr. McCook, its Secretary, 
announced the passage of sundry resolutions relative to the 
death of Hon. John E. Kenna, late a Senator from the State 
of West Virginia. 

DEATH OF HON. JOHN E. KENNA. 

Mr. Wixson of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, the resolutions 
just communicated from the Senate announce to this House a 
fact whose impressive solemnity I shall not lessen by words of 
my own at this time. 

For sixteen years Mr. Kenna had represented West Virginia 
in this House and in the Senate, with the warm approval of 
his constituents and the applause of his countrymen. 

Judged by the length of his service and the distinction of his 
service, he hail filled out a long and honored career. Judged 



ltj Announcements of the Death of Senator Kenna. 

by flic number of his years, as they are measured in the cal- 
endar, he had scarcely reached the meridian of life, or entered 
upon that tableland where his rare powers would have borne 
their ripest and most abundant fruit. 

1 ask leave, sir, in response to the resolutions of the Senate, 
to offer the resolutions which I send to the Clerk's desk. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will first report the resolutions 
from the Senate. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with great sorrow of the death of 
the Hon. John E. Kenna, late a Senator from the State of West, Virginia. 

Resolved, That a committee of seven Senators 1"' appointed by the Vice- 
President to take order for superintending the funeral of Mr. Kenna, which 
will take place to-morrow, Thursday, in the Senate Chamber, at 1 o'clock 
p. in., and that the Senate will attend the same. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect entertained by the Senate 
for his memory, his remains be removed from Washington to West Vir- 
ginia in charge of the Serjeant-at-Arms, ami attended by the committee, 
who Khali have full power to carry this resolution into effect. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these proceedings to the House 
of Representatives, ami invite the House of Representatives to attend the 
funeral to-morrow. Thursday, at 1 o'clock p. in., and to appoint a committee 
to art with the committee of the Senate. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect the Senate do now adjourn. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will now report the resolutions 
offered by the gentleman from West Virginia. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That this House has learned with profound sorrow of the death 
of Hon. John I'.. Kenna, a Senator of the United states from the state oi 
West Virginia. 

Resolved, That the Speaker of the House appoint a committee <>f ten 
members, t i in conjunction with the committee appointed by the Sen- 
ate, to take order for superintending the funeral ami to accompanythe 

remains to their last resting place. 

Resolved, That the House accept the invitation of the Senate to attend 
the funeral to-morrow, Thursday, at 1 o'clock p. m., ami that the Clerk ol 
the House communicate these proceedings to the Senate. 

Resolved, That, as a further tribute and mark of respect, to the, memory 
of the deceased, this House do now adjourn. 



Announcements of the Death of Senator Kenna. 17 

The Speaker. The question is on the adoption of the reso- 
lutions. 

The resolutions were agreed to unanimously. 

The Speaker. Before announcing the result of the vote, and 
declaring the House adjourned, the Chair will appoint as mem- 
bers of the committer : 

Mr. Alderson, Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Wilson of West Virginia, Mr. 
Capehart, Mr. Outhwaite, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Dingan, Mr. Mansiii, 
Mr. Henderson of Illinois, ami Mr. Bingham. 

The Speaker. In accordance with the terms of the resolu- 
tions just adopted, the Chair now declares the House adjourned 
until to-morrow at 12 o'clock in. 

And accordingly (at 12 o'clock and 48 minutes) the House 
adjourned. 



Thursday, January 12, 1893. 

FUNERAL SERVICES OF SENATOR KENNA. 

Mr. Wilson of West Virginia ottered the following resolu- 
tion; which was read, considered, and adopted: 

Resolved, That at 12 o'clock and 55 minutes p. m. to-day the House pro- 
ceed to the Senate Chamber to attend the funeral services of the late Sena- 
tor Kenna, and upon the conclusion of such services the House return to 
its Chamber and resume its session for the day. 

S. Mis. 66 2 



FUNERAL SERVICES IX THE SENATE CHAMBER. 



Thursday, January 12, 1893. 

Rev. J. G. Butler, n. n., the Chaplain of the Senate, offered 
the following prayer: 

O Thou, in whom is no darkness at all, the light and the life 
of men, help us this day and every day to walk in Thy light. 
We thank Thee for the light of Thy Word and the light of the 
perfect life. We bless Thee for all who so live in the obedience 
and faith and love of the gospel that their light shines abroad, 
that men may see their good works and be led to glorify Thee, 
our Father in Eeaven. 

We bless Thee for this great free land, with all its institutions 
of education and religion and all the people tree. We pray, () 
God. that Thou wouldst shine more and more into our hearts, 
making plain the path of duty, delivering us from the power 
of darkness and error in every form and from the bondage of 
ignorance and sin, filling us with Thine own mind so that we 
may enter more and more into that freedom wherewith Christ 
makes men and nations free. 

Guide us thiv day by Thy counsel. We thank Thee for the 
care of the night and the mercies of the morning. 

We look to Thee, O God, as we come to these duties, and pray 
that as we turn toward and from the open grave we may learn 
lessons of heavenly wisdom, so walking in the fear and love of 
God, with charity toward our fellow-men. that our lives may be 
made a benediction. 

l!l 



20 Funeral Services in the Senate Chamber. 

Sanctify to us all Thy providences. Bless with us our fellow- 
men in every class and condition, and may our land stand more 
and more for the truth and justice, the equity and righteous- 
uess,ofthe religion of Christ. We ask these mercies, with for- 
giveness and grace, in Jesus' name. Amen. 

The Journal of yesterday'sproceedings was read andapproved. 

Mr. Faulkner. Mr. President, owing to my absence yes 
terday I made an arrangement with tbe Senator from Kentucky 
| Mr. Blackburn], on whom was imposed the sad privilege of 
announcing' to the Senate the death of my distinguished col- 
league. Senator .John E. KENNA, of West Virginia. 1 come 
from the, capital of the State, where were assembled yesterday 
the representatives of the people of that State. I bear with 
me to the Senate the evidences of their sympathy at this sad 
bereavement, not only to the people of that State, but to the 
nation. 

As a further evidence of their high esteem and distinguished 
regard for the Senator who is now departed, they appointed 
from the senate and house of representatives of that body 
a joint committee to proceed to the. capital of the nation and 
to escort the remains of the deceased Senator to the capital of 
of the State, where the interment will take place. Under the 
rules of the Senate it becomes my duty at this time to ask the 
unanimous consent that the privileges of the floor be granted 
to this representative committee of the legislature of the 
State of West Virginia. 

The Vice-President. Unanimous consent will be consid- 
ered as agreed to, if there be no objection. The Chair hears 
none 

The joint committee of the legislature of West Virginia was 
composed of Mr. C. C. Watts, Mr. W. II. Tarr, Mr. J. A. Shep 
pard. Mr. John E. Peck, and Mr. A. Garrison on the part of 
the senate, and Mr. L. 1). Chambers, Mr. Joseph F.Clark, Mr. 



Funeral Services in the Senate Chamber. -1 

R. S. Hanunett, Mr. L. H. Graham, and Mr. S. J. Greer on the 
part of the house of delegates. 

Mr. Manderson. 1 move that the Senate take a recess 
until a quarter of 1 o'clock. 

The motion was agreed to; and at the expiration of the 
recess (at 12 o'clock and 45 minutes p. in.) the Senate reas- 
sembled. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. T. O. 
Towles, its Chief Clerk, announced that the House had passed 
the following resolutions: 

Hesolved, That this House has learned with profound sorrow of the death 
of Hon. John* E. Kenna. a Senator of the United States from the State of 
West Virginia. 

Resolved, That the Speaker of the House appoint a committee of ten 
members to act in conjunction with the committee appointed by tin- Sen- 
ate, to take order for superintending the funeral anil to accompany the 
remains to their last resting place. 

Resolved, That the House accept tin- invitation of the Senate to attend 
the funeral to-morrow, Thursday, at 1 o'clock p. m., and that the Clerk 
of the House communicate these proceedings to tin- Senate. 

Hesolved, That, as a further tribute and mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased, this House do now adjourn. 

The message also announced that the Speaker had appointed 
as the committee under the second resolution Mr. Alderson, 
Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Wilson of West Virginia, Mr. Cape- 
hart, Mr. Otthwaite, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Dungan, Mr. Man- 
sur, Mr. Henderson of Illinois, and Mr. Bingham. 

Before the assembling of the Senate the body of Mr. Kenna 
had been removed from his late residence to the marble room, 
where it remained under a guard of Capitol police until taken 
into the Senate Chamber. The casket was covered with black 
cloth and was devoid of ornaments save, a plain silver plate 
bearing the following inscription : 

John Edward Kenna, 

Born, April 10, 1848. 

Died, January 11, 1893. 



2'J Funeral Services in the Senate Chamber. 

At eight minutes before l o'clock the members of the House 
of Representatives, preceded by the Sergearit-at-Arms and 
Clerk, and headed by the Speaker, entered the Senate Cham- 
ber. The Speaker was escorted to a seat at the right of the 
Vice-President, the Clerk sat at the Secretary's desk, the Ser- 
geant-at-Arms on the right of the Vice-President's desk, and 
the members of the House were escorted to the seats on the 
floor provided for them. 

They were soon followed by the Major-General Commanding 
the Army, the diplomatic corps, the Chief Justice and asso- 
ciate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, the 
President of the United States, and the members of the Cabi- 
net, who were respectively escorted to the seats assigned them 
on the floor of the Senate Chamber. 

At 1 o'clock and 14 minutes p. in. the casket containing' the 
remains of the deceased Senator Mas brought into the Senate 
Chamber, having been preceded by the committee of the leg 
islature of West Virginia, the family of the deceased, and 
escorted by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, the com- 
mittee of arrangements of the two Houses, the pallbearers 
selected from the Capitol police, and followed by acolytes and 
Rt. Rev. John .1. Keane, rector of the Catholic University 
America; Rev. 1'. J. Donahue, of Baltimore, Aid.: Rev. D. 
F. Schmitt, Rev. .Tames F. Donahue, Rev. M. .1. Riordan, of 
Barnesville, Md.; Rev. J. Havens Richards, s. j., president of 
Georgetown University; Rev. Jacob Walter, Rev. C. Gillespie, 
s. .i.; Rev. William J. Seanlan, s. .).; Rev. P. J. McGinney, 
s. ■!.: Rev. John G. Delaney, Rev. dames Mackin, Rev. John 
Gloyd, Rev. Joseph F. McGee, Rev. M. 1'. Sullivan. Rev. 1'. .1. 
O'Connell, Rev. I-;. I-:. Mayhadier, Rev. B. Gordian, F. s. C; 

Rev. I). .1. O'Co r, of Clarksburg. W. Va., and Rev. J. M. 

Gleason, l>Vv. .lame- I,. Corey, Rev. Edward P. Dempsey,and 
Rev. John A. Cull, of the Catholic University of A rica. 



Funeral Services in ///<■ Senate Chamber. 23 

The players for the burial of the dead prescribed by the 
ritual of the Catholic Church were read first in Latin and then 
in English by Rev. James F. Donahue, assistant pastor of St. 
Joseph's Church, and the responses were made by attending 
clergymen. 

After the incensing and blessing of the body, 

Rt. Rev. John J. Keane delivered the following sermon: 

FUNERAL SERMON OF BISHOP KEANE. 

At the request of his Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, and as 
his representative on this solemn occasion, it is my privilege 
to offer to Senator Kenna the church's tribute of respect and 
affection. His country, whose chief ami most honored repre- 
sentatives are at this moment clustered around him, has given 
and will yet give fitting expression to her appreciation of the 
tireless energy, the distinguished ability, and the blameless 
integrity with which he tilled for so many years the high offices 
to which his fellow-citizens had called him. Let it be permit- 
ted to his mother church to mingle her accents with those of 
his country, to tell of those qualities that made him near and 
dear to her — yea, the qualities in which lay the real secret of 
all his public worth. 

A life is noble in proportion as it has before it a noble ideal 
and strives manfully to live up to it. But nowhere in all the 
universe of human thought and aspiration can there be found 
such an ideal as that which faith from his earliest years held 
before him; nowhere such motives and means for its attain- 
ment as his faith supplied him with. 

Iu his early childhood faith taught him to say to his own 
busy mind, and to answer to all who asked of him the reason 
of his being: "God made me that I might know Him, love 
Him, and serve Him in this world, and be happy with Him 
forever in the next.'' It showed him that he was the offspring 



lit Funeral Services in the Senate Chamber. 

of infinite love, and that his destiny was the perfection and the 
beatitude of his being in love eternal. 

When, from the littleness of his finite being and from the 
lowliness of this earthly abode, he looked up to the far-off 
boundless infinite and asked "How can 1 reach a destiny 
there ?" his faith showed him the one Mediator, the Word made 
flesh, the God Man, the bridge between the infinite and the 
finite, whose humanity stoops to embrace the lowliest child of 
earth, and whose divinity lifts those that are willing to be 
lifted up to their destiny in the eternal bosom. He heard the 
Saviour whisper, "Xoonecometh to the Father but through 
me." He saw that only through love incarnate could human- 
ity find its way to God ; and even as a child he vowed in his 
heart that he would do it. 

Then he asked, "But tell me what this means in practice, 
what it implies in my daily life ?" And his faith answered, in 
the words of our Lord, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with thy whole heart, ami with thy whole soul, and with thy 
whole mind, and with thy whole strength." To this his young 
heart responded willingly, because lie knew that the sweetest 
of all things is love, and that the noblest of all loves is the 
love of God. And then faith pointed to all that his life was 
ever to have relations with and said. •And the second com- 
mandment is like to the first: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself." Thus in the light that beamed forth from the incar 
Date God he saw clearly, unmistakably, the spiritual nobleness 
to which his own life was called, while that same radiance 
clothing every human being in the sweetness and dignity of 
the eternal Father's love and of kinship to the Saviour stirred 
his young heart with yearnings that his life might be useful 
as well as holy, that it might not only give glory to God in 
the highest, but also spread peace and good will along his 
pathw ay on earth. 



Funeral Services in the Senate Chamber. '25 

Within his soul he heard the voice of conscience and of 
natural benevolence echoing the Saviour's words and giving 
them forth as a command of their own; but how immeasur- 
ably was their persuasiveness intensified and their efficacj 
heightened when he recognized that they were indeed an echo 
of His voice who so sweetly said to him : " Whatsoever thou 
Shalt do even to one of my least brethren thou shalt have 
done it unto me." He had before him the loftiest ideal, and 
he craved to be worthy of it. 

Then, as his life developed and the horizon of his relation 
ships and his duties expanded, his faith showed him that the 
same eternal Father, who has so wonderfully framed and ele- 
vated human nature, and who has so sweetly fashioned and 
blessed the links which bind one to family, to friends, and to 
the associates of daily intercourse, has also with equal wisdom 
and love devised and sanctioned human society in its widest 
and highest forms of country and of humanity; that it is He 
who fires the patriot's heart with love of country ; that it is 
He who distends the heart of the philanthropist with long- 
ings for the welfare of mankind, for the progress of the race. 
Be saw in the light of Christ that this was the noblest reach 
of unselfishness and benevolence; that this above all was 
worthy to be animated by His spirit; that whatever the life of 
man was capable of under the promptings of manly courage, 
of loyalty to duty, of broadness of sympathies, of disinter- 
ested self-sacrifice — all this, and more and higher still, was 
comprised in the ideal of Christian patriotism and Christian 
heroism; that herein was found the lofty inspiration that made 
apostles and martyrs for country and for humanity as well as 
for religion and for God. And he saw that if even the least 
act of charity and self-sacrifice, done for the least of human 
beings, would be regarded by our Divine Saviour as done to 
Himself, much more would noble and lofty service, achieved in 



->'< Funeral Services in the Senate Chamber. 

t he spirit of a < !hristian for I lie good of country or of mankind, 
be regarded by the Saviour of the world as most pleasing and 
meritorious service to the Divine Majesty. 

Here was the lofty ideal which, from liis earliest years, JOHN 

Edward Kenna saw held before him by his faith. And sucli 
was the ideal by which, up to his latest breath. Senator KENNA 
well knew that he had to measure and to judge all the work 
of his life. Well has the great apostle said: "The just man 
liveth by faith." That life, must, in the nature of things, fall 
short of the measure of full justice that is not thus inspired 
and directed by faith. For faith alone tells in its fullness all 
that a man is meant to be to himself, to his fellow-men. to his 
God : and he who measures his life by another standard 
measures it necessarily by a lower one. and must fall short of 
Ins full heaven-appointed duty. 

Thanks be to God whose providence gave this good man 
from his earliest boyhood no other standard by which to shape 
and estimate his life, and unto his last day permitted him to 
judge himself by no different criterion. Were I to assert 
that he had never in any moment of his life relaxed in his 
striving after the great ideal or swerved from the line of per- 
fect fidelity in its realization, he would be hist to rebuke me 
for the exaggeration, and 1 can fancy that those silent lips, 
erst so prompt and strong for honesty and truth, would say, 
"No, 1 was human; even while the spirit was willing the flesh 
was weak. Many and many a time did I strike my breast and 
say. ' O God, be merciful tome a sinner.'" And now, in the 
language of the liturgy, his spirit cries out, "Have mercy on 
me, O God, according to thy great mercy, and according to 
the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity. A 
sacrifice to (bid is a repentant spirit; the contrite and humble 
heart, (> (bid. thou wilt not despise.'' 

■• But," he would add with characteristic frankness. •• when- 



Funeral Services in the Senate Chamber. 27 

ever I approached the sacrament of penance l>.\ a good confes 
sion" — and his family can testify thai lie did it frequently and 
fervently — ■• I honestly deplored before God my shortcomings 
ami sins: and every time I received ray Saviour into my poor 
heart in the holy communion I vowed to Him that I would 
renew my resolve of fidelity to every duty towards my God, 
my country,, and iu\ fellow-men, and that I would strive to 
fulfil] them in His own spirit." 

Well did our Divine Lord know the needs of human nature 
when He established in His church these sacramental chan- 
nels of Ilis grace, to curb, to spur, to chide, to comfort, and 
encourage and cheer upward, according to onv many oecessi 
ties. And well do we know that no man who conscientiously 
has recourse to them can lie a had man. Nay. well do we know 
that he can not but be a good man. a better man by far than 
without These restraints and helps and encouragements of 
religion he naturally could be. 

Because of his faith, because of the glorious uplifting truths 
it taught him. because of the potent spiritual aids it gave him. 
John Edward Kkxna was a wiser man. a stronger man, a 
safer man, a more reliable and dutiful and useful man in every 
department of life. His career was all the more an honor to 
his country and a blessing to humanity because of the divine 
element that was in it. The links of deep and strong and 
sincere affection which bound him to family and to friends 
wen' all the sweeter and all the tenderer because of that spirit 
in the heart of ( 'hrist which he venerated, which he loved, and 
in which his soul yearned to participate. 

Blessed be God for all that his faith did for him, for the ideal 
it held before him. for the ambition it implanted in his heart. 
for the aspirations it poured into Ins soul, for the holy aids and 
restraints with which it enriched his daily life. Blessed be 
(lod for the depths of comfort and of peace with which the 



28 Funeral Services in the Senate ( hamber. 

ministrations of divine mercy filled liis weeks of suffering and 
the hour of his death. 

And now may eternal love repair and perfect in him what- 
ever his life has left faulty and imperfect. May "the Father 
of Mercies and the God of all consolation, who comforteth ns 
in all our tribulations," pour into the hearts of his bereaved 
loved ones the halm of His healing and soothing grace. And 
may the God of wisdom and of power, the author of all that is 
true and beautiful and good, grant to every one of us that we 
may be truly wise, that we may render our lives pleasing to 
our Creator and profitable to our fellow-men. by living them 
under the inspiration and guidance of His holy faith. 

The Vice-President. The committee of arrangements will 
escort the remains of the deceased Senator from the Chamber, 
accompanying the body to the Pennsylvania Railroad depot 
and from thence to the place of burial; and the guests of the 
Senate will retire in the reverse order of their entrance. 

The casket was borne from the Chamber, attended by the 
committee of arrangements, the family of the deceased Sen 
ator, the clergymen, and the committee of the legislature of 
AYcst Virginia. 

The invited guests having retired from the Chamber, 
Mr. Allison. 1 move that the Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to: and (at 1 o'clock and 48 minutes 
p. in.) the Senate adjourned until to-morrow, Friday, .January 
13, 1893, at 12 o'clock m. 



PROCEEDINGS AT CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA. 

The announcement of the death of Senator Kenna caused 
great sorrow in Charleston. As soon as the news was 
received the Mags on the statehouse and other public buildings 
were lowered to half-mast, and the mayor of the city, Mr. 
Pemberton, called a meeting- of the citizens to take immediate 
action in regard to arrangements for the funeral. The citizens 
of Charleston and those from other portions of the State then 
in the city met in the senate chamber at the capitol. Mayor 
Pemberton presided and a committee, consisting of ex-Governor 
E. W. Wilson, Governor A. B. Fleming, Hon. Eustace Gibson, 
Dr. D. Mayer, and Dr. E. L. Boggs, was appointed to draft 
resolutions suitable to the occasion. A committee of twelve 
was appointed to make arrangements for the funeral and to 
meet the remains at the depot and escort them to the capitol. 
Brief but touching speeches were made by a number of the 
prominent men who were present. 

ACTION OF THE LEGISLATURE. 

The death of Mr. Kenna was announced in both houses of 
the legislature and a resolution adopted that the members of 
the senate and house of delegates should meet the remains at 
the railroad station and accompany them to the state capitol; 
a committee was appointed from each house to proceed to 
Washington and escort the body to Charleston; and upon the 
day of the funeral the legislature adjourned to enable its mem- 
bers to attend. 

29 



30 Proceedings at Charleston, II'. la. 

The proceedings in the senate were very impressive. Gen. 
C. C Watts, speaking both as an intimate friend and as one 
who spoke for the people of West Virginia, announced the 

death of Senator Kenna in the following words: 

•• Mr. President: I arise to perform the saddest duty of my 
life. It is to convey to this senate the sad intelligence of the 
death of our distinguished Senator, John Edward Kenn \. 
My first acquaintance with Mr. Kenna began twenty-five years 
ago, when as mere boys we entered upon the practice of tin- 
law. I was intimately associated with him and thoroughly 
acquainted with the ins and outs of his life. From my first 
acquaintance with him up to the time lie was elected prosecut- 
ing attorney, and from that day until this, tin- people of West 
Virginia have watched his career with pride. They have 
watched him as a public servant, elected when but a boy some 
twenty four years of age; watched him go through that office 
into the national House of Representatives as the youngest 
member of Congress, watched liis career there and have seen 
him take rank with the highest, brightest, and brainiest men 
in Congress; they have watched liim as lie passed through 
Congress, term after term, in the House of Representatives, 
adding to his already early earned reputation, until finally the 
people of this State, after his third term in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, elected him to a seat in the United States Senate: 
they have watched his career there with satisfaction and pride 
from that day until this, when suddenly the news is flashed 
over the country bringing' to us the sad intelligence that John 
EDWARD Kenna, the senior Senator of West Virginia, this 
morning at .'! o'clock passed peacefully from earth. 

■■I deem it very proper here in your presence in the senate 
of the State of West Virginia, among his friends in the State 
of his nativity, to attest, as one of his warmest friends, his 
great moral worth, both as a public servant and as a private 



Proceedings at Charleston^ II'. Va. -".1 

citizen. Few men in this or any other age have displayed a 
bigger bruin, ;i warmer heart, or a more sublime character than 
John Edward Kenna. 

"Mr. President, in the midst of the depression ;in«l gloom 
which surrounds us, 1 can not flndfurther words toexpressmy 
feelings for him who was my dearest friend on earth. I sub 
mit, sir, to the clerk of I lie senate, the following resolutions 
and ask that they be read and adopted." 

The resolutions which were submitted were as follows: 

Whereas we have just learned with feelings of the most profound regret 
and sorrow of the sad death of the Hon. John E. Ki ana. the distinguished 
senior Senator from this State, at the city of Washington, at the hour of 
:> o'clock this i 'ning; and 

Whereas we recognize that in his death the country at large and the 
state which lie has served so long, so faithfully . and so well, in particular, 
have suffered a hiss which must lie appreciated by every citizen of this 
State who hived him as a friend, respected him as a public servant of 
incorruptible integrity, and a citizen who has reflected a marvelous degree 
of credit upon his native State: Therefore, be it 

Resolved, That we tender to his bereaved family our deepest sympathy 
in this the hour of their great sorrow. 

Ui-milral, j'ii rlli n\ That a committee to be composed of live members of the 
senate to act with a like committee to be appointed by the house, to make 
the necessary arrangements for his funeral, and if necessary to go to the 
city of Washington for that purpose, be appointed. 

Resolved, further, That a committee of five senators be appointed by the 
president to prepare appropriate resolutions on his death : such resolutions 
to be spread upon the record of the senate. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect the senate do now adjourn. 

The resolutions were adopted unanimously. 

The committees provided for therein were then named by the 
President, as follows: 

On arrangements: Mr. Watts, Mr.Tarr, Mr. Peek, Mr. Shep- 
pard, and Mr. Garrison. 

On resolutions: Mr. Watts, Mr. St. Clair, Mr. Scott, Mr. 
Henderson, and Mr. Worley. 

The senate then adjournened. 

The funeral train, bearing the remains of Mr. Kknna and 



32 Proceedings at Charleston, II'. la. 

the escorting party, reached Charleston Friday afternoon and 

was met by the members of the legislature, the committee 
appointed at the meeting of the citizens of < 'harleston, and by 
a large concourse of citizens of West Virginia. 

The remains of the dead statesman were removed to the 
home of his aged mother, where they were allowed to rest for 
two hours, after which they were taken to the senate chamber. 
The exterior of the capitol was draped in mourning and all 
flags in the city were suspended at half-mast. The city was 
shrouded in gloom, and everywhere were to be heard words of 
praise for the dead Senator and of sorrow for his loss. The 
senate chamber was hung in heavy black drapery. In the 
center of the room the remains, in a handsome black casket, 
rested upon the catafalque, surrounded by flowers, the gifts of 
friends. 

THE FUNERAL SERVICES. 

The last sad rites were performed on Saturday morning. 
The remains were removed from the capitol to St. Joseph's 
Roman Catholic Church. This modest building, which Mr. 
Kenna had designed twenty years before, was unable to 
accommodate the throng which assembled to do honor to his 
memory. The building was crowded and many were com- 
pelled to stand outside the doors. Both branches of the legis- 
lature adjourned out of respect to the memory of the deceased, 
and attended the funeral. The governor and principal officials 
of the State were also present. The solemn high mass of the 
Catholic Church was celebrated by the Rev. J. W. Steuger, 
assisted by Rev. Father Marlborough. Father Stenger paid 
an eloquent tribute to the virtues of the deceased statesman, 
w hose pastor and friend he had been for years. He said: 

•'My Dear Friends: I regret exceedingly that the small 
dimensions of the chapel make it impossible for all the sur- 



Proceedings at Charleston, IV. Va. 33 

rounding friends of Mr. Kknna to gather around this bier and 
fully satisfy their hearts with doing' him honor during these 
last moments of his presence amongst us. When, twenty-five 
years ago, Mr. Kenna with his own hand, now so cold and 
motionless, sketched the plan of this small building for the 
convenience of the handful of Catholics who then resided here, 
neither he nor I dreamed that he would be struck down in the 
prime of his manhood; that his mortal remains would be 
brought before this altar from the capital of the nation, escorted 
by a cortege of honor from the Congress of the United States. 
and met by hundreds of representative citizens from all parts 
of the State; and that on me would devolve the melancholy 
duty of performing the last sad rites of the church over him. 
"Before the altar of Cod, in the presence of the dead, while 
we are pleading in the prayers of the liturgy for mercy and 
rest for his soul, it is hardly the time and place to sound the 
praise of a mortal man, however distinguished may have been 
his achievements, yet, my dear friends, you have loved John 
E. KennA and so have I, and we feel that the recital of some 
of his good qualities would not be gravely out of harmony with 
the solemn spirit of this occasion to our hearts. He was a 
favorite perhaps as no other man has been with the people of 
Kanawha Valley in particular, and with the citizens of the 
entire State of West Virginia. There are many here who can 
recall with me that scene which occurred in the hall of the 
delegates at the capitol three years ago, when the dead lock 
was finally broken and John E. Kenna was again chosen to 
represent his State in the United States Senate; they remem- 
ber how strong men fell on each other's necks and wept for 
sheer joy that the man who held their affections had again 
come victorious out of the protracted contest. A few weeks 
ago, when the news of his serious illness was sent over the 
land, all spoke words of pity and regret ; and the columns of 
S. Mis. GC 3 



3J Proceedings at Charleston, IV. Va. 

the press of the State irrespective of political difference were 
filled with touching tributes to his worth. To-day you arc 
yourselves witnesses of the universal grief over his untimely 
end. "West Virginia is mourning her gifted Kenna as Georgia 
mourned her eloquent Grady. 

"These, my dear friends, are the evidence of a popularity 
which must be traced to a deeper cause than mere success. 
They tell us that by some magic peculiar to him, Mr. Kenxa 
insinuated himself deep into the affections of the people of this 
State. What was this magic I I have had good opportunity 
of studying him. 

•■ When he entered the college at "Wheeling, in 1SG7. 1 was a 
teacher in the institution and saw him daily. When he came 
back from college to begin the study of the law, he found me 
here before him engaged in laying the foundation of the Cath- 
olic mission of the Kanawha Valley. For a year or perhaps 
longer, we lodged in the same house, audi gave him the benefit 
of my knowledge of the Latin language, by rendering into 
English for him the foot-notes of Blackstone's Commentaries 
on English law. We were companions and friends in a higher 
than the ordinary sense, for I was his pastor and in some degree 
his mentor. We never became seriously estranged, though 
our judgments did not coincide regarding the career which 
already at that time he was mapping out for himself. 

"Being of a more phlegmatic temperament than his, addicted 
to the slow, plodding method, and knowing little of the stimu- 
lus of ambition, I was most likely incapable of suspecting its 
force in a youth as strong in health, as ardent in temperament, 
and as keen in intellect as he was. I was not in favor of his 
entering into politics. I could not know what a transcendant 
faculty for leading and swaying men was struggling within him 
for development during our interviews. I could never fail to 
see in him, even in recent veins, when gray hairs had begun 



Proceedings at Charleston, 11 '. la. 35 

to show on his temples, and lines of care in his face, the same 
familiar boy. His gayety was infections, and it was no doubt 
a strong element of the charm that won for him the hearts of 
men. It continued with him amid the cares of public life. It 
was with him in the domestic circle. I fear almost to speak 
of it in the hearing of his tearful children, for to them he was 
no less the jolly playfellow than the ruler of the household. 

"But behind this unquenchable gayety there was a man- 
hood of the strongest type. He loved what is manly. He 
loved what challenges the courage and energy of a man. The 
sports which he preferred were of this nature, so also were the 
serious tasks of his life. To vault from the office of prose- 
cuting attorney of a West Virginia county into the place of a 
United States Congressman was a feat that tempted his cour- 
age. He accomplished it. He maintained himself there for 
three terms, then won his way still higher. And when he 
found himself in the eminence, he was not content to be an 
incompetent figurehead, but soon mastered measures and 
methods and made himself eminently useful to the people 
whose commission he bore. He was also manly under reverses 
aud sorrows. It was during his first effort to get to Congress 
that the sickness and death of his first wife called him to her 
bedside and then to her grave. He bore up under the blow 
with uncomplaining fortitude that won the sympathy and ad- 
miration of all the people of this city. I shall say nothing 
further about him as a public man. It would be cruel to de- 
tain you longer in this cold church; still as his pastor during 
more than twenty-six years, I am entitled to the privilege of 
saying only a few words about his religious faith. 

" He, himself, would protest against my exhibiting him as a 
Christian of tender piety, but I truthfully and heartily bear 
testimony that he had a sincere and strong Catholic faith. 
"When he was ready to enter public life he never felt the temp- 



36 Proceedings at Charles/on, W. la. 

tat ion tn tling aside his faith that might handicap him in the 
race tor position. He never felt called upon to apologize for 
his creed under a government that leaves every man free to 
worship his Maker according to the dictates of his conscience. 
While he did not obtrusively proclaim his religion from the 
housetops, he was willing that the world should know that he 
believed in the doctrines of the old church and acknowl- 
edged the supremacy of the Pope. There were, perhaps, 
periods when the preoccupation of his politics caused him to 
adjourn the consideration of his religious duties longer than 
he should have done, but he never thought of entirely aban- 
doning them. On Sundays, when in town, he faithfully occu- 
pied his place in church, and he, was seen, too, at the com- 
munion railing. 

" On the day of his eldest boy's first communion he gave my 
congregation the edification of seeing him kneeling humbly 
at the railing with the boy and professing his faith in the real 
presence. As for his faults, he was honest enough to admit 
them. He is dead, and it is not our province to settle the 
account between him and his Maker. God in His mercy 
accorded him the time during his painful last illness to regu- 
late the affairs of his conscience." 

The active pall-bearers were Mr. R. Ballard, Mr. John Van 
Buren, Gen. 0. C. Watts, Mr. C. C. Lewis, Mr. A. P. Chilton, 
Mr. Joseph Chilton, Mr. Joseph O'Grady, and Mr. C. K. McDer- 
mott, all of Charleston. The honorary pall-bearers were the 
members of the committees of the Senate and House of Bepre- 
sentatives, and lion. C. P. Snyder, Mr. J. H. Huling, Mr. E. 
L. Butterick, Mr. S. S. Green, Dr. John P. Hale, Mr. William 
F. Goshorn, Dr. James N. Mahan, and Judge. J. D. Brown. 

At the conclusion of the religious ceremonies the remains of 
John Edward Kenna were borne past groups of sorrowing 
men and women and children who had known and loved him, 
and laid to rest in the Catholic Cemetery. 



Joint Resolution and Act of Legislature of West I 'irginia. 37 



January 25, 18!»;5, the Legislature of West Virginia passed a 
joint resolution requesting the Representatives of the State in 
Congress to take the necessary steps to secure the desk and 
chair lately used in the Senate by John Kdwakd Kknna, 
and that the same be forwarded to Charleston, W. Va., there 
to be kept permanently in the statehousc in said city as the 
property of the State. 

Before' the legislature adjourned it provided that a statue of 
Senator Kenna should be placed in the Statuary Hall in the 
Capitol at Washington. The act is as follows: 

AN ACT to provide for the presentation to Congress of a statue of John E. Kenna, and 
making an appropriation to pay for same. 

Be it enacted by the legislature of West Virginia, That the governor, presi- 
dent of the senate, ami speaker of the house of delegates, ex-officio, and J. 
E. Dana, A. W. Campbell, Johnson N. Camden, and Charles J. Faulkner 
shall constitute a commission to procure from a competent artist a statue 
of John E. Kenna, in marble, to be erected in the Capitol at Washington, 
in pursuance to the laws of the United States; said presentation shall lie 
made as a part of the contribution of the State of West Virginia to the 
national gallery. 

2. The sum of rive thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be neces- 
sary, is hereby appropriated out of any money in the treasury not other- 
wise appropriated, to pay for the said statue and its erection, as provided 
in section one of this act ; and the auditor shall issue his warrant upon the 
treasurer for the price of such statue and its erection, not to exceed the 
sum aforesaid, when the said commission, or a majority of them, shall cer- 
tify the price of such statue to him, that same has been erected as afore- 
said. 

3. The members of said commission shall serve without compensation. 
Passed February 20, 1893. 

Approved February 22, 1893. 

[NOTE BY THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE dl' DELEGATES.] 

The foregoing act takes effect from its passage, two-thirds of the mem- 
bers elected to each house, by a vote taken by yeas and nays, having so 
directed. 



EULOGIES IN THE SENATE. 



Monday, February 27, 1893. 

Mr. Faulkner. Mr. President, pursuant to uotice hereto- 
fore given, I submit the resolutions which I send to the desk, 
and ask that they be now read and considered. 

The Vice-President. The resolutions will be read. 

The Chief Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
of Hon. John E. Kenxa, late a Senator from the State of West Virginia, 
and extends to his afflicted family sincere sympathy and condolence in 
their bereavement. 

Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect to the memory of Mr. 
Kkxxa the legislative business of the Senate be now suspended in order 
that his former associates in this body may pay fitting tribute to his 
memory. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate be directed to transmit to the 
family of the deceased, and also to the governor of West Virginia, a certi- 
fied copy of these resolutions, with a statement of the action of the Senate 
thereon. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate these resolu- 
tions to the House of Representatives. 

Resolved, That, as a further testimonial of respect to the memory of the 
deceased Senator, the Senate do now adjourn. 



Address of Mr. Faulkner, of West Virginia. 

Mr. President : In the name of the people of a State who in 
life respected, admired, and loved John Edward Kenna, and 
who, now that death has claimed him as his own, without dis- 

39 



40 Address of Mr. Faulkner, of West 1 'irginia, on the 

tinction of party, section, creed, or faction, sincerely mourn 
the loss of a gifted son, I ask that the legislative business be 
temporarily suspended, that the representatives of the States 
may unite in a last sad tribute to the memory of an associate 
whom all admired for his high intellectual gifts, and many, yes 
very many, loved for those bright, social, and genial traits of 
character that fascinated and charmed, and who now — 

Long for the touch of a vanished hand, 
And the sound of a voice that is still. 

Mr. President, no public man has ever been in closer touch 
with the people of my State, and I doubt whether, in the future, 
any other will so endear himself to them by his personality and 
public services as Mr. Kenna. His frank and manly greeting ; 
his genial companionship; his fund of anecdote and illustra- 
tion; his unique and striking expressions; his love of hunting, 
fishing, and all the manly sports; his undaunted courage and 
unswerving integrity; his liberality and unselfishness; his 
tender pathos and burning eloquence, all united in a person- 
ality representing the most perfect specimen of physical man- 
hood, made him the idol of many and caused him to be 
respected, admired, and beloved by all. 

His death was not only a public calamity, but a personal 
bereavement to the people he so long and ably represented. 
Nothing was left undone by the State or the citizens that 
could give emphasis to the sentiment of public and private 
misfortune. The legislature, by resolutions, gave expression 
to the sentiment of our people. The press, without distinc- 
tion of party, laid upon his casket the garlands of its highest 
tribute. A joint committee of tlie two houses was appointed 
to proceed to this city and with the committee of Congress to 
escort his remains to the capital of the State, where, sur- 
rounded by all the evidences and emblems of a grateful peo- 



Lije and Character of John Edward Kenna. . 41 

pie's profound sorrow, thousands gazed upon that calm, strong, 
brave face never to be seen again — 

'Till impregnate with Jehovah's l>l:i>t, 
Graves bring forth, and at His menace dread, 

In the smoke of planets melting fast, 
Once again the tombs give up their dead. 

Mr. Kenna was born in Kanawha County, Va., now West 
Virginia, April 10, 1848, and died in the city of Washington 
on the 11th day of January, 1803. 

Philosophy but confirms the teachings of experience, thai 
man's character, to a great extent, is molded and fashioned by 
the circumstances which surrounded its growth and develop- 
ment. The youth and manhood of Mr. Kenna were but an 
illustration of this truth. His magnificent physique; his vig- 
orous intellect; his courageous and independent spirit, were 
not the results of a condition of luxury and ease, but the 
development of these characteristics, which were so marked 
in our deceased friend, was stimulated by the necessities by 
which he was confronted. 

Left fatherless, by one of those inscrutable dispensations of 
Providence, at the early age of eight years, he realized even 
then that on him would soon devolve the care and support of a 
loving mother and two younger sisters. In 1858, Mrs. Kenna 
and her three children removed to the State of Missouri, 
residing on the farm of Mr. Lewis, a brother of Mrs. Kenna, 
where they remained until after the breaking out of the late 
civil war. It was upon this farm, and at the early age of 11 
years, that he commenced to contribute to the support of the 
family. 

Frequently have his associates in this Chamber heard him, 
with almost boyish gayety, tell of his experience in reclaiming 
from its natural condition one of Missouri's finest plantations, 
when his uncle held the handle of the plow and he controlled 
the four yoke of oxen attached to it. 



42 Address of Mr. Faulkner, of I Vest Virginia, on the 

Although ut this period of his life he had the advantage of 
the tutelage of a governess, yet we are told this did not pre- 
vent him from becoming an " expert teamster." 

He was passionately devoted to his mother, and being an 
only boy and the eldest child, he soon assumed the position to 
her of an adviser, counselor, and companion. This responsi- 
bility rapidly developed his character, and fitted him at an 
early age to grapple successfully with the stern duties of prac- 
tical life. 

At the age of sixteen years he enlisted in the Confederate 
Army, and surrendered with his command at Shreveport, La., 
in June, 1865. 

In youth, as in manhood, one of his most striking character- 
istics was his firmness and unconquerable determination of 
purpose, which was illustrated at this period of his life, when, 
though severely wounded, he refused to retire from active 
service, choosing to endure the hardships and privations of a 
disastrous campaign rather than seek the rest and safety of a 
hospital couch. At the close of the war Mr. Kenna returned 
to Kanawha Couuty, W. Va., where the rest of his family had 
preceded him. 

At the age of eighteen years he found himself without an 
occupation and with but a meager education, but these disad- 
vantages did not deter his brave and ambitious spirit from seek- 
ing a higher and broader field of human action. In this critical 
period of his life's history he was assisted by his friends, and 
especially by Bishop Whelan, and under their advice entered 
St. Vincent's Academy at Wheel inn. where he remained for 
two and one-half years. Possessed of a quick, bright, and 
vigorous intellect, he improved every moment of his time by 
earnest application to his studies, and when he left his alma 
mater he had accomplished in training his intellect and storing 
his mind with those fundamental principles upon which he was 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna, 43 

to build his future reputation as much as any one could have 
done in that period of time. He then entered the law office 
of Miller & Quarrier, the members of which firm were distin- 
guished for their learning, ability, and high personal charac- 
ter, for the purpose of reading law 

Recognizing that the law was a jealous unstress, no devotee 
ever dedicated himself more earnestly and enthusiastically to 
the divinity of his faith or superstition than did Mr. Kenna 
to the pursuit and mastery of legal principles. 

lie was admitted to the bar in June, 1870. Prior to that 
time there existed what was known as the lawyers' test oath, 
which, by its operation, prohibited any one who had aided, 
abetted, or sympathized with the Confederate Statesfrom enter- 
ing into the practice of the profession of law. In a memorable 
speech made by Mr. Kenna in the Senate on the 16th and 17th 
days of December, 1890, he refers to this statute, the difficul- 
ties imposed upon him by its operation, and the struggles 
which marked his life at that time, in the following language: 

Mr. President, I should certainly not offer myself in illustration of a 
great subject like this, but when I had returned, in as good faith as any 
mortal man ever accepted a situation, to my home, impoverished by cir- 
cumstances over which I had no control, as were thousands around and 
about me; when I had devoted almost every hour of the daytime and the 
nighttime to fit myself as well as I possibly could for the pursuit of the 
profession which I desired to enter; when I had to build my own fire, boil 
my own meat, bake my own bread to be able to hold in my hand a certifi- 
cate that would admit me to the bar, I had to sit in enforced idleness for 
six long and weary months until the laws which forbade me to earn my 
bread were wiped from the statute books. 

Mr. Kenna acted with his usual discretion and sound judg- 
ment in selecting the law as the profession to which to conse- 
crate his splendid abilities. He possessed a mind both analyt- 
ical and logical. He comprehended the principles which should 
govern and control his case with a clear, penetrating judgment 
that appeared to be more the result of intuition than reason; 
he grasped the prominent facts involved in the record, and with 



44 Address of Mr. Faulkner^ of West Virginia, on the 

a felicity of expression seldom excelled by one of his years and 
experience, he presented his cause to court or jury so com- 
pactly, with the lines of distinction so clearly drawn, and the 
lights and shadows so artistically thrown upon the picture he 
had conceived, that his client's case had the apparent advan- 
tage of its presentation to the final arbiters of his rights, 
objectively as well as subjectively. 

As a lawyer and as an advocate he ranked among the leaders 
in his profession, and had but few, if any, superiors in our State. 

He was always popular with the people among whom he 
lived, and his ability as a lawyer being promptly recognized, 
he was, at the age of twenty-four, two years after his admis- 
sion to the bar, elected to the position of prosecuting attorney 
of his native county of Kanawha. He entered into the con- 
test for this nomination witli the ardor of youth and the 
strongest ambition to succeed. He appealed to the younger 
element of his party to support his claims, and during the 
canvass formed friendships that were never chilled or loos- 
ened to the hour of his death. 

Tradition tells that it was very important for him to carry 
one of the districts of his county that had always been con- 
trolled by gentlemen who were antagonistic to his nomination. 
He personally took charge of that section of the county; aroused 
his friends to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, and having tri- 
umphantly carried the delegation in his favor, he retired from 
the convention to the back yard of one of his friends, and with 
several of his youthful lieutenants, who had stood by him so 
loyally in the contest, engaged in the amusement of a game of 
marbles. 

Mr. Kenna soon found the prosecuting attorneyship too nar- 
row a field for the exercise of his great abilities and the gratifi- 
cation of that laudable ambition which was a part of his very 
nature. In 1874 he offered himself as a candidate for* Ymgress 



Life and c haracter of John Edward Kenna, 45 

in the Third Congressional district of West Virginia, bul failed 
to receive the nomination by a lew votes. 

"Failures are with heroic minds the stepping-stones to suc- 
cess." In 1870, at the age of twenty-eight years, undaunted 
by his previous failure or the fact that he had as his compet- 
itors two of the strongest men in his district — the earnest and 
eloquent Frank Hereford, and the able and brilliant orator, 
Heury S. Walker — he boldly announced his candidacy, and 
fixed his appointments with a view of canvassing the district 
for the nomination. His able and logical discussion of the 
great questions that were then agitating the public, mind, and 
his eloquent appeals, rallied to his support a majority of his 
party, and when the convention was held he received the nom- 
ination and was eleected by an overwhelming majority. 

An incident occurred in this campaign which well illustrates 
his methods as a leader and politician. Mr. Kenna never 
fought under cover, yet at the same time his movements were 
always controlled by the most consummate diplomacy. I lis 
biographer tells us of this incident in the following language : 

The only objection urged against Mr. Kenna was his lack of years and 
experience. He had courage, and though young in years he had learned 
much of the world from association with men. A number of the leading 
members of his party in his native county issued a circular letter in favor 
of the nomination of Maj . Hereford. While this did not daunt Mr. Kenna 
it greatly wounded his pride. He announced a series of public meetings, 
and addressed the people in behalf of his own candidacy. At one of these 
meetings in Charleston, at which a number of the signers of the circular 
letter were present, Mr. Kenna, in the course of his speech, said: 

" I have no word of unkindness for those distinguished men [referring to 
the signers of the circular]. But you will pardon me when I say that if I 
could exchange places with any one of them; if I could stand a matured, 
successful, established man, in all that the terms imply, and look upon 
a boy left in orphanage at eight years; if I could watch the pathway of his 
childhood, with the obstructions confronting it, and witness his strug- 
gles, his hardships, his labors, and his prayers; if I could see him march- 
ing on through adversity until kinder stars seem to shine upon him, and 
he was about to attain through trial and vicissitude a position of honor 
to himself and of usefulness to his fellow-men — before I would sign a 



46 Address of Mr. Faulkner, of West Virginia, on the 

paper whose only eft'ect would be to break down and ruin that young 
man, I would be carried to one of your lonely hillsides and there laid to 
rest forever." 

The effect of thi> speech was seen and felt. A primary election was 
ordered in Kanawha County and Mr. Kexxa carried the county on a full 
Democratic vote. 

Mr. Kenna entered national polities at one of the most 
important crises of our country's history. The feelings aroused 
by that great political convulsion -which had shaken the foun- 
dations of our governmental structure from center to circumfer- 
ence had not yet subsided. Party feeling ran high and found 
frequent expression on the floor of the House of Representa- 
tives. The restless billows that were stirred into activity by 
the bitterness of party antagonisms would have submerged a 
less calm, courageous, and sell-reliant man; but cool bra very 
and indomitable pluck in the young Representative soon 
singled him out from among his fellows as a leader on whose 
calmness, firmness, and sound judgment his associates could 
rely with confidence. 

Mr. KENNA at last found himself a leader among leaders, 
and in a held broad enough to gratify the highest aspirations 
of his ambition, lie had a genius for politics and statecraft, 
and loved the excitement incident to its contests. He did not 
seek, but when thrust upon him he never sought to avoid its 
conflicts. Where the battle waged the fiercest, in the front 
rank, could always be found this calm, intrepid leader. No 
man's personality on the floor of a convention of his party 
ever exerted more potent influence over his associates. Once 
aroused, he was the very embodiment of promptness and 
action. His was — 

The keen spirit 
That seizes the prompt occasion, makes t he thought, 
Starts into instant action, and at once 
Plans and performs, resolves and executes. 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 47 

At this period of his life he was a thorough student of the 
great public questions that confronted the representatives of 
the people. He mastered every subject of legislation that 
attracted his vigorous intellect, or that could in any way affect 
the moral or material interests of his constituents. He real- 
ized from the first hour of his entrance into public lift' the 
great possibilities in the development of the material interests 
of the Kanawha Valley, could he secure permanent water 
transportation for its coal and timber products, and the most 
enduring monument that has been or will ever be built to per- 
petuate his memory, other than the temple which his noble 
life and public services have erected in the heart of his people, 
will be the completion of the slack-water navigation of tin- 
Great Kanawha. 

Although death has closed his lips in pleading for this great 
national improvement, he had the satisfaction in life to know 
that one of the last acts of his official career was to succeed in 
having the faith of the Government pledged to its final com- 
pletion within the brief period of a few years. 

Mr. Kenna served three terms in the House of Representa- 
tives, and was elected to a fourth in November, 1882. The 
Hon. Henry G. Davis subsequently declining a reelection to 
the United States Senate, Mr. Kenna announced himself as a 
candidate to succeed him, and was elected without difficulty 
in January, 18S3, for the term commencing on the 4th of March 
of that year. 

Mr. Kenna entered the Senate fully equipped and well pre- 
pared to discharge the new duties and responsibilities which 
the confidence of a generous constituency had imposed upon 
him. His experience of six years in the popular branch of 
Congress had rendered him familiar with the requirements of 
his new position, and enabled him to at once take a prominent 
part in the deliberations of this body. 



48 Address of Mr. Faulkner, of West Virginia, on the 

No higher compliment could have been paid the young Sen- 
ator than his selection to represent the views of the minority 
in that memorable legal and intellectual contest, involving the 
exercise by the President of the right of removal from office of 
officials confirmed by the Senate, without giving to this body 
the cause or reasons for his action. 

On this occasion he fully measured up to the requirements 
of the position to which he had been assigned by his asso- 
ciates, and by his great constitutional exposition in vindicat- 
ing the right of the President to remove from office without 
assigning the cause, he broadened his reputation both as a 
lawyer and as a statesman, and commanded the admiration 
of his distinguished competitor, the venerable Senator from 
Vermont, whose legal ability, logical power, and biting satire 
are so well remembered in this Chamber. I do not think I 
use the language of exaggeration when I claim that the mas- 
terly reasoning, the able and forcible presentation of the case, 
and the overwhelming precedents submitted by Mr. Kenna 
in that great debate, left upon the unbiased mind of any 
who listened to it not a shadow of doubt as to the constitu- 
tional correctness of the position assumed by the President in 
that controversy. 

Mr. Kenna was reelected to the Senate in 1889, after an 
exciting and prolonged contest covering a period of six weeks. 
Before the opening of the campaign of 1888 he announced him- 
self a candidate for his own succession. No one contested with 
him for that high honor, and it seemed to be universally con- 
ceded throughout the State that the success of the Democracy 
would be equivalent to his reelection. After the battle had 
been fought and the victory won under his leadership, and the 
legislature had assembled with but one Democratic majority, 
it was ascertained for the first time that one member of the 
party would refuse to obey the mandate of the party caucus 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 4'J 

and the sentiment of a large majority of his constituents by 
declining to vote for him. This condition of affairs continued 

until within a few days of the adjournment of the legislature 
by operation of law. 

Mr. Kenna, in this contest, showed himself possessed of all 
the qualities of a safe aud judicious leader, and again exhib- 
ited the rare power which he could exercise over others. lie 
inspired a devotion to his political fortune and ambition among 
his supporters that made them intolerant even of a suggestion 
of his withdrawal and placing of any other gentleman in nom- 
ination by the caucus. Being present upon the ground, he per- 
sonally conducted his own contest, strengthening the weak, 
encouraging the doubting, and restraining the impetuous. His 
consummate leadership was at no period of his political career 
more severely tested than at this time. His triumph was due 
alone to those personal characteristics on which he so success 
fully relied from the time he entered public life. 

Mr. President, the public career of John E. Kenna is a part 
of the history of his country, and is familiar to all who have 
taken an interest in the lives of those representative men of 
our Republic who during the last sixteen years have formu- 
lated the policies and guided the destinies of our people. Rec- 
ognizing his national reputation, the legislature of West Vir- 
ginia has, with a unanimity that voiced the sentiment of our 
people, by a formal act, provided that his statue shall be 
placed in the Statuary Hall of tfie National Capitol, among 
those of other typical aud illustrious men of the several States. 

In all the relations of life, as husband, father, soldier, and 
statesman, he was ever the genial companion, the confiding 
friend, with a warm and generous nature, and with a reputa- 
tion resting upon a character that was absolutely pure aud 
without stain. 

The last two years of the life of Mr. Kenna were years of 
S. Mis. CO i 



50 Address of Mr. Faulkner, of West Virginia, on the 

physical weakness, suffering, and anxiety. But even his dis- 
abilities and the advice of friends could not restrain him from 
participating in the debate resulting from the attempt, in 1890, 
to pass what is known as the Federal election bill. Well do 1 
remember his appearance, even at that early period of his 
illness, when he arose to address the Senate. His face was 
pale, and showed the evidence of intense physical exhaustion, 
and his quivering limbs told too plainly the story of the rav- 
ages which disease had made upon his strength, but his voice 
was firm and clear, as he entered his earnest, vigorous, and 
indignant protest against the passage of that measure. 

Mi. President, the life of JohnE.Kenna, from the time when 
his warm, boyish heart formed its first friendships, until the 
day when in the very prime and pride of perfect manhood he 
was called from our midst, speaks with its own touching elo- 
quence of those noble and lovable qualities which endeared him 
to his friends and made him the idol of his people. His heart 
beat in sympathy with all his kind, knowing no distinctions of 
class, creed, or condition in its warm affection. Above life's 
petty selfishness, it throbbed responsive to the hopes and fears 
and smiles and tears of all he knew. Obedient to the highest 
and the holiest impulses of human nature, he felt the kinship 
of his whole race, and lived a sharer in its sorrows as well as 
in its joys. 

In all the changing scenes of n.s eventful life, in storm and 
sunshine, his manly spirit faced with fearless front whatever 
chanced. He knew no fear in life, and when he faced the lasr 
and grandest test to which the soul of man is ever put, and 
heard Death's footfall nearing fast in plainly marked approach, 
he met him with the unblanched cheek of perfect fearlessness. 
The summons came at last to tread the unknown pathways of 
the "further shore;" obedient to its mandate, no knightlier, 
braver spirit ever passed into the realms of death. 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 51 



ADDRESS OF MR. FRYE, OF MAINE. 

Mr. President: I have never been in lull sympathy, and am 
not now, with our manner of paying tribute to the memories of 
associates who have died while in the public service. It seems 
to me too cold and too formal. 

The fact that' Senators are selected to deliver addresses 
weeks and sometimes months before the occasion in an invi- 
tation to a careful preparation, which results in elaborate, 
philosophical, and beautiful essays, but excludes all impetu- 
osity of speech, all words forced from the lips by the beating 
heart behind. It seems to me that it would be better on the 
day the death of one of our associates is announced for those 
Senators who wish to speak what the heart then and there dic- 
tates. This would seem like scattering sweet flowers over the 
grave of a dead comrade, while our custom throws over ir a 
mantle of snow, white, beautiful, and glittering, but icy. If it 
had been permitted me on the day that Senator Kenna's deatli 
was announced to the Senate, when the heart was full of the 
loss we had sustained, when the memory was crowded with 
his virtues, when the soul was stirred to its depths by emotion, 
I could have spoken words much more satisfactory to me than 
at any other time. 

I knew Senator Kenna well, and esteemed him very highly. 
I served with him in the House of Representatives for four 
years. J* the Senate he was for six years a member of the 
Committee on Commerce, of which I have the honor to be chair 
man, and he was my colleague for two or three j r ears on the 
Committee on Foreign Relations. 

I was a member of the House of Representatives when he 



52 Address of Mr. /-'rye, of Maine, on (he 

took his seat in the Forty-fifth Congress at a called session in 
the month of October, and a very exciting session, too. 

Senators who have served in that House will agree with me, 
I think, that there is no arena in the whole wide world which 
so tests a man as that, which is .so certain to reveal real man- 
hood, detect all sham, puncture all pretenses, and reward true 
merit. Indeed, it has sometimes seemed to me that it was 
almost brutal in the celerity of its verdicts and in the execu- 
tion of its judgments. Into that arena this young man, the 
youngest one, I think, there — my impression is less than 30 
years of age — came for trial, fresh from a law office in West 
Virginia, without previous legislative experience- 
He was appointed a member of the Committee on Commerce, 
and I remember very early in that session there was a bill 
before the House providing for the distribution of its business, 
which interfered very seriously with the jurisdiction of that 
committee. It was an exciting occasion. Senator Kenna was 
utterly unknown. Of a sudden he sprang to the defense of the 
committee to which he had just been appointed, and I am not 
saj ing too much, I am not open to the charge of exaggeration, 
when I declare that from that moment Senator Kenna's repu 
tation was established. He made a most powerful appeal in 
defense of his committee, attracting and holding the attention 
of the entire House. 

1 think in the month of January, later on, he had charge of 
a very important bill — which is unusual for so young a mem- 
ber — a bill extending aid to the Woodruff polar expedition. 
It was very sharply contested. Senator Kenna managed it 
with wonderful skill. Evidently he had marked out his par- 
liamentary pathway with great care, and allowed nothing to 

swerve him fr it. He carried it through successfully, and 

achieved a wonderful victory for so young and inexperienced a 
man. 



Life and Character of John Edward A'cu/ia. 53 

Alexander H. Stephens was an exceedingly interested and 
careful observer of the contest, and lie wrote in Senator 
Kenna's album a week or two afterwards these lines: 

It was your first bill. It was a measure of great publie importance, and 
the manner in which you so skillfully and successfully conducted it to its 
final passage deservedly, allow me to say, won for you not only my own, 
but the admiration of the House. 

Such a victory as that and such congratulations as Mr. 
Kknna received at the time would have turned the head of 
a weak man; but Mr. Kenna had sound, practical, common 
sense, without which genius is compelled to record a great many 
sad failures. 

I remember later on in his career he made two or three very 
noticeable, indeed powerful speeches on financial and eco- 
nomic questions. 

He was a hard worker, a man who had the capacity, and not 
only the capacity but the inclination to work; and we all know 
that in Congress, as every where else, that is worth a great deal 
more than genius, indeed that it is an absolute essential to 
success. 

Mr. Kenna's manner of thinking and of talking was logical. 
He very frequently took part in the live and ten minute debates 
in the House, the most interesting, the most effective, and yet 
the most trying discussions which arise in any body in the 
whole world; and he came to be regarded as an exceed- 
ingly effective disputant. 

So long as 1 remained in the House with Mr. Kenna lie con 
tinned to grow, and when I left that arena it had rendered 
its verdict as to him, and his reputation was thoroughly and 
completely established. 

In 1883, 1 think it was, he came to the Senate to succeed Mr. 
Davis. He brought here with him the laurels he had faith- 
fully and justly won in the House of Representatives. He had 
been here some little time before he took any part in the de- 



54 Address of Mr. Frye, of Maine, on the 

bates. I remember perfectly well his first speech. It was on 
a very important subject, at that time attracting great atten- 
tion — interstate commerce. He commanded the close attention 
of this body; and we know from experience that no greater 
compliment than that can be bestowed on the speaker. 

I remember the speech to which his colleague [Mr. Faulk- 
ner] has referred. It was one of the most exhaustive I have 
ever heard. It involved an enormous amount of research, and 
1 suppose that his Democratic colleagues, at any rate, would 
pronounce it, on the whole, the ablest speech he ever made in 
public life. 

In the Fiftieth and Fifty-hrst Congresses he made some very 
excellent speeches. Indeed, he never made a poor one; he 
never made one of which even a Senator of his reputation need 
to have been ashamed. 

But a terrible disease had fastened upon him, and the tight 
between life and death had commenced. I know that Sen 
ator Kenna tried — oh, tried so hard — to do his duty, to attend 
to his committees, take part in their consultations, to be in his 
seat in the Senate, and participate in the work of legislation. 
The dying embers would every now and then be fanned into a 
flame, but the flame only disclosed to him the weakness of his 
body. He was patient; he suffered: he endured, but he never 
complained. I think, though, he knew that the result of the 
contest was to be his death. 

Senator Kenna socially was a most delightful man. As a 
host he was wonderful. He was generous to a fault; he was 
charitable; he was kindly; he made hosts of friends, who 
to-day miss him very greatly. 

He was a very keen sportsman. He loved the mountains, 
the forest, and the running streams. Like "Fishing Jimmie'" — 

lie loved to hoar the rush of mountain streams, the sound of a going 
in the tops of the trees, the sweet, pensive strain of white-throat spar- 



Life and ( 'haracter of John Edward Kenna. 55 

rows, and the plash of Leaping troul ; to see the crystal clear waters pour 
ing over granite rocks, the wonderful purple light upon the mountains, 
the Sash and glint of darting nsh, the tender green of early summer. 

Like him, too, he saw and heard through these sights and 
these sounds the dear Lord, who loved and made them all. 

I think the last speech he ever made in the Senate indicated 

this recognition. In defending the Lord's day against what 

he believed to be its desecration, he said: 

It has always seemed to me a beautiful reflection that there i> a suspen- 
sion of things that are human and an aspiration to the things that are 
God's in the very atmosphere of the day that we call Sunday. The princi- 
ple of its observance is indelibly impressed upon our institutions. The 

practice of its observance is universally respected. 

It seems to us that Senator Kenna's death was premature; 
thai his life's work was incomplete. I have thought that it so 
seemed to him, and the eulogy he delivered. on a young col- 
league of his in the House, I think from the State of Louisiana, 
is significant of this. He then said: 

Mr. Speaker, in the cutting off of one in the prime and vigor of early 
manhood, with a life only half spent, the glory of achievement arising in 
beauteous visions of a future that is not for him, there is something which 
makes an impression different from that which comes from the departure 
of one in the fullness of his -years. 

When Death invades the ranks of fresh maturity and snatches the fruit 
that is ripening there, he seems to come before his time and to gather 
to-day the harvest of to-morrow. Such a visitation seems a denial rather 
than the end of life. 

- # *. # * ■ * * 

' Senator Kenna knows now that it was no denial; Senator 
Kenna knows now that it was no end: Senator Kenna knows 
now that it was only an earlier beginning of a life a thousand 
times more glorious and more beautiful, of a life unshackled 
and uncrippled by pain, by sickness, by passion, and by temp 
tation. 

Mr. President, within my memory death never gathered such 
a harvest of great men in the same length of time as in the 
last month of the old year and the first of the new. Five 



56 Address of Mr. Gorman, of Maryland, on the 

majors general, all of whom won their rank on the field of battle 

lighting for their country, one of whom was said "to have been 

the greatest purveyor for armies that the world ever knew, 

one of whom was even more distinguished in civil life than in 

military; a former President of the United States; a justice 

of the supreme judicial court; the " Plumed Knight," that most 

brilliant statesman of his generation; a minister of Christ 

known and loved the world over, so broad-minded and liberal 

that the lips of a Jewish rabbi were unsealed in a great public 

meeting in the city of New York, and he said: 

America has lost one of her great sous. Bishop Brooks will live on in 
the memory of the American people as a man strong in hoilj, strong in 
mind, of an integrity without a flaw, of a love without a bonnd; 

three Tinted States Senators; one the courtly gentleman of 
the old school, modest, dignified, and faithful, Mr. Barbour of 
Virginia; another a brilliant soldier, an accomplished scholar, 
and an experienced statesman, Mr. Gibson of Louisiana, and 
the other our friend, Mr. Kenna. 

Mr. President, where are these great men % Lost! Forever 
lost? A thousand times, no. Where are they? Destroyed? 
That black monster, Death, could no more destroy these gnat 
souls than he could stretch his icy hand upward and pluck the 
stars from the skies. They have simply crossed "the covered 
bridge," and on the other shore shall find delightful employ- 
ment for all their great powers for good forever and forever. 



Address of Mr. Gorman, of Maryland. 

Mr. President; I wish I had the ability to do justice to the 
memory of Senator Kenna. The Senate has never offered its 
testimony of respect and sorrow to a nobler character. 

For more than thirty years it has been my good fortune to 
have known most of the great men who have represented their 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna, 57 

States in this august assembly, and I can say with sincerity 
that in that illustrious array Senator Kenna lias had no supe 
rior in the admirable combination of his intellectual powers 
.and personal qualities. 

I may have been carried by a fervent friendship beyond the 
limits of exact accuracy in this expression, but I have thought 
of it well and adhere to it as the statement of my deliberate 
judgment. 

Not to speak of the living, he did not have the overwhelm- 
ing logical power ot Douglass; he had not acquired the rare 
and vast learning of Sumner; he had not the consuming elo- 
quence of Henry Winter Davis; not the grand rhetorical sweep 
and range of Conkling; nor the unanswerable array of facts 
and figures and reasons of Beck; but he did have that exqui- 
site union and harmony of every mental faculty and of all 
personal endowments that made him in force and influence, 
' in all respects, upon this arena their equal and their peer. 

In the House of Representatives, when younger by many 
years than either, he took his place beside Randall and Cox, 
and Blaine and Garfield ; and in the Senate, when the youngest 
Senator on the floor, he stood in the front line with Lamar, 
Pendleton, Gibson, and Plumb. 

At his time of life, in a House representing 60,000,000 of 
people and in a Senate speaking for forty-four States, to have 
been uniformly a prominent, conspicuous, leading figure, and 
to have held that position in those bright constellations wit- 
nesses a man of remarkable force, of great gifts, and of the 
rarest qualities. 

In the State of West Virginia, as has been so truthfully and 
beautifully stated by his late colleague and friend, he lived in 
the hearts of his people. , 

He was their inspiration, their idol, their hope, standing out 
like their noblest mountain peak, to whose summit they could 



58 Address of Mr. Gorman, of Maryland, on the 

look for the first light of day, and whose steadfast firmness 
was proof against all change and disaster. 

His career was not an accident; it was not the result of cir- 
cumstance or chance. It had its origin in a strong, noble- 
nature; its source was easily found in a great bead and a great 
heart constantly working- together with pure methods for high 
purposes. 

His intellect was comprehensive, active, acute, constructive, 
original, and contemplative. The thoughts that came from it 
were broad, liberal, exalted, and of uniform character. 

Nothing eccentric, meteoric, explosive emanated from that 
harmonious laboratory. Nothing was too grand or too vast for 
the grasp of his intelligence; nothing too minute or too trifling 
for its attention. 

His thought was clear as a ray of light; his reason was 
strong as steel or adamant. There were no clouds or mists 
or vapors or shadows hovering over the straight lines by 
which he marched to his conclusions. 

He looked right through a subject, uncon fused, undisturbed 
by any of the fallacies which often distract and disturb the 
judgment. 

His mind descended with the eagle's flight upon its object 
and seized and mastered it. He saw everything as it was, in 
its naked reality and its true relations, unclouded by imagina- 
tion, the fancy, or the passion. 

He applied the test of truth to every proposition with almost 
mathematical directness and precision. With the serenity of 
a philosopher he examined every question, and with the im- 
partiality of a judge he surveyed every field. 

He presented to others the impressions and images of his 
own brain with the clearness and fidelity of a photograph or 
a mirror. And all his speeches were but living embodiments 
of his thoughts, plain and clear as if presented on canvas. 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 5!) 

His arguments were constructed doubtless from lessons 
learned iii military life; they were organizations, strong, com 
pact, without unnecessary ornament — of rapid movement, 
always aggressive and dashing ti> the assault. 

He defended his Hanks and rear by the vigor, boldness, ami 
persistence of his charges. No soldier ever used the bayonet 
more quickly on the field of battle than Kenna resorted to t In- 
same weapon in argument. 

In debate he was very happy, always able, always well tern 
pered, always candid, perfectly fearless, and perfectly just. 

He employed no artifice, was never sinister, and with won 
derful skill baffled his antagonists and held his field against 
all rivals. 

He never inflicted a cowardly or cruel or insidious wound, 
and left no rankling arrows in the memory of opponents; and 
he never had reason to blush at the result of any controversy 
in which he was engaged. 
. He looked with the sagacity of a prophet through the 
thoughts and motives of men; but he read them in the light of 
a brother's charity and a friend's indulgence. 

His wit, inherited with his warm Irish blood, was green, 
fresh, sparkling like a mountain spring; but from that clear, 
everflowing spring there came no bitter water. 

His soul was magnanimity itself. In his generous bosom 
there was no place for envy, or jealousy, or revenge. No ser- 
pent could live in that pure home of the virtues and affections. 

He was brave as a hero, but tender as a girl. His sense of 
rightwas great andbeautiful; he loved justice, truth, audhonor. 
His sympathies were easily and deeply touched by others* sor 
rows, and he was unselfish to a fault. From the depths of his 
heart he hated oppression, and his love went out like sweet 
showers to all his fellow-men. 

John E. Kenna was greatly beloved — no man more so. I le 



60 Address of Mr. Gorman, of Maryland^ on the 

was everywhere welcome; at the Executive Mansion, with the 
Cabinet, with the representatives of foreign peoples, in the 
Senate, in the Bouse of Representatives, on the streets, on the 
highways, in the mansions of the great, in the homes of the 
people, in the hearts of all he was ever welcome. The hearts 
of men, women, and children all went out to him as blossoms 
open to the sun — for the sunlight of his nature shone upon all 
of them. He left behind him sweet memories, gratitudes, and 
loving friends, but no enemies. 

His nature was susceptible of great enjoyment; he loved 
horses; he was devoted to dogs; he delighted in the chase, 
and was extremely foud of fishing. He loved all nature — the 
mountains, the woods, the streams, the green fields, the wild 
flowers, and the beautiful harvests. 

He loved the great ocean, with its bounding and boundless 
waxes; he loved the Potomac, with its blue waters carrying 
his mind back to his home and childhood, and he loved at 
night to walk under the calm skies and watch the eternal stars 
and worship and adore their Creator. But above all the beau- 
tics of nature and art, above the ocean, the mountains, aud 
skies, above painting and sculpture and poetry and eloquence, 
he loved his friends. 

His genius was friendship; upon that altar he constantly 
sacrificed. 

His friendships were dec)), strong, fervent; they pervaded 
and made his life; they were his being and existence. His 
devotion, his dedication, his consecration to his friends was 
beautiful; it was sacred and holy, like his duty to his country 
and his love for his home. 

Who among us here can ever forget his daily coming into 
the Senate; his entrance here was like the light of morning. 
We can now almost see his manly form, his gracious, beaming 
smile; we can almost feel the warm grasp of his hand and 



Life and c haracter of John Edward Kenna. <>1 

bear again the sallies of his humor. I Jut what is mortal of 
him has passed away, and 1 must not speak of his home life. 
I must not touch the veil that shelters the sacred scenes of 
fireside, of affections, of domestic love, of the gentlest, the 
tenderest, the kindest of husbands and fathers. 

When I last saw him he was lying upon the bed from which 
he never rose. With eyes full of deepest affection and his greal 
heart beating with undying love, he spoke of those whom he 
was to leave, behind him, and of his supreme faith in the 
mercy of God. 

Unlike the eloquent Tribune of France, he did not invoke to 
that scene the enchantment of flowers and perfumes and music ; 
but all around him were the fragrance of the affections, the 
sweet incense of piety; and already were coming to his ears 
the sounds of sorrow from his approving and grateful country- 
men. 



Address of Mr. Blackburn, of Kentucky. 

Mr. President : Most men live too long. This man died too 
soon. Ere a single power had begun to fail, ere his intellectual 
resources had been fairly fathomed or his capacities fully tested, 
in the very flush and vigor of his splendid manhood, he was 
cut off. He had accomplished much, but his life's work was 
but fairly begun. In youth he and poverty were not strangers. 
In his boyhood he was denied even the meager advantages of 
the rude country school, in the wilds of Missouri. 

Before the foundations of an education were laid, answer- 
ing the bugle call that summoned the youth of the Southland 
to battle, he entered the Confederate Army as a private soldier 
when but sixteen years of age. His father had died when he 
was but an infant. Without relative or friend to advise or 



62 Address of Mr. Blackburn, of Kentucky, on (he 

guide him, amid the rude surroundings of the camp, he began to 
block out bis own destiny. Without a single advantage, shad- 
owed by the frowns of fortune, he took counsel of bis own bigb 
resolve, and staked bis future upon the integrity and courage 
witli which the Creator had endowed him. To a nature less 
strong or a heart less brave success was impossible. 

The boy soldier by his bearing, manly beyond his years, 
became the pet and idol of the camp. Whether tested by the 
trials of the forced march, when barefoot and hungry, or wast 
ing in the crude hospital from wounds received in battle, with- 
out a mother's tenderness to soothe or cheer him, the soul of 
the beardless boy never quailed nor faltered. 

Wben the war had ended he sought to acquire an education, 
but only to be told that his offer of what little he possessed was 
insufficient to procure tbe boon that he coveted. It was tben 
that a kind-hearted bisbop, ignorant of tbe benefaction that 
he was conferring upon mankind, opened tbe doors of the Cath- 
olic college at Wheeling to the penniless and friendless youth. 

His colleague has traced far better than 1 could do tbe rapid 
strides with which be passed from the college to the front rank 
of the bar of his State. It is needless i.i this presence to 
recount bis achievements and his triumphs in this and the 
other branch of Congress. 

For well nigh a score of years he stood the admitted peer of 
the ablest debaters of either House. As a lawyer I can not 
recall a man of his age whom I thought his superior. His intel- 
lectual methods were prompt, direct, and wondrously incis- 
ive. Measured by a fair standard, in every field in which bis 
capabilities were tested, he proved himself an uncommon man. 
The eulogium that friendship would inspire is not needed in 
describing him. 1 would rather speak of him in language co 
simple as to breathe out the love in which I held him. 

We have never known a gentler, nobler, truer man. My 



Life andCharacter of John Edward Kenna. 63 

knowledge of and association with him made me think better 
of mankind. It was in the social circle, by tbe hearthstone, 
that we learned to esteem him most and love dim best. But 
a few days since a friend wbo bad known him long and well 
truly described him as "a cbild among children, and a man 
among men." Some weeks ago 1 received a letter from one 
wbo, in years gone by, bad served with .John Kf.n.na in the 
other House. His description of the man is so true and bis 
tribute to bis character and memory so touebingly told, thai 
I am impelled to read it here, in order to give it to imperishable 
print : 

Kansas City, Mo., January .'I, 189S. 

My Dkar Blackburn: Ever since the death of our friend John Kian v 
my thoughts have hung about him and yourself as it' held by some enchant- 
ment. You and he were so inseparable, and I enjoyed and loved both with 
such intense delight that I know not where better to speak my sorrow and 
praise over his new-made grave than to your willing ears. 

There was something so classic and heroic in the very face of John* Kenna 
that lie bewitched me on first acquaintance. It was a very pleasure ground 
to look upon ; an open door to a great, big. warm heart, instinct with good- 
ness. One more generous never beat in human breast. A more chivalrous 
spirit never spurred man on to devotion and duty. A more absolutely 
unselfish soul I never knew. As innocent of art in his methods a^ a sweel 
girl, without chicanery or diplomacy in his exploits, he won popular 
applause just as he did private confidence, by the very charm of his natural- 
ness and the simplicity of his honesty. 

Just as his face always seemed to me au inexhaustible well of friend- 
liness, humor, and thoughtfuluess, his mental resources, in no debate he 
ever held, in no forensic effort he ever made, strong and eloquent as some 
of them were, so far from showing exhaustion, ever left with me the 
impression that he possessed depths which no occasion had arisen to fully 
fathom. Had health been his, to enable him to meet the supreme moment 
which would have evoked into action, full armed, all the hidden forces of 
his capabilities, what fame he might have won. 

At your age and my age of life we do not make new friends, at least as 
we did when we walked in our old- college lawn, and saw dew on every 
blade of grass and stars in every dewdrop. When a friend like John 
Kexxa drops from our circle it is as a guiding star fallen from the sky. 
There is no luminary to take its place. It is a lost pleiail. 

I discover myself growing more retrospective, looking constantly back- 
ward to the friends of earlier days. You are a " grave Senator" and I am 



<>4 .Address of Mr. Callow, of Illinois, on the 

a " dignified judge," as the world has it ; but 1 doubt not that our hearts, 
it' they could, would this day gladly leap from the toga and the ermine to 
go back to the days when you, Kenna, and myself first met in Congress. 
We will never see happier, brighter days, and I am glad we got so much 
out of them. 

As ever, your friend, 

Jno. F. Philips. 

But, Mr. President, the associate whom we knew so well, 
the comrade whom we cherished, the friend whom we loved so 
fondly, has finished his task and passed from among us. His 
life was valuable because of its example. The world is better 
for his living, and manhood is elevated by the record that he 
has left for its guidance. Hope springs from the grave in 
which we bury this love. Listening to the pleadings of the 
yearning soul we hear the whispered promise of a hereafter. 
Looking through the light of the love that we bore him, we 
m- v penetrate the gloom of the grave and beyond its yawning 
chasm catch a glimpse of the shadowy shore where the loved 
and the lost await us. My love for this man teaches me that — 

There is no death! 

The stars go down to rise upon a brighter shore. 



ADDRESS OF MR. CULLOM, OF ILLINOIS. 

Mr. President: In sorrowful remembrance of the deceased 
Senator in honor of whose memory the Senate is now in memo 
rial session, I feel impelled to utter a few words of eulogy of 
his life and character. 

In doing so I shall not attempt to follow John E. Kenna 
through his youth, full of trials, or through his early man- 
hood, dignified by successful struggle against besetting ob- 
stacles of formidable and variable character, for that duty has 
already been performed adequately and eloquently by the 



Life and Character of John Ed-ward Kenna. 65 

honorable Senator from West Virginia [Mr. Faulkner], from 
colleagueship with whom the deceased has passed from this 
Chamber, made famous by the genius of many great men, into 
that other chamber in the somber membership of which are 
the patriarchs of the infant world, the — 

Kii]j;s, 
The powerful of the earth, the wise, the j^< ><><!. 
Fair forms and hoary seerB of ages past. 

Mr. President, I have not time in which to characterize the 
deceased as a lawyer and as a statesman. I have not time to 
picture him conducting with ability akin to genius causes in 
the courts, pouring into the mind of the judge from his well- 
stored reservoirs of learning in the law precedent upon prec- 
edent and adapting them all to the facts at bar. Neither 
have I time to picture him as a member of the House of Eep- 
resentatives or of this body, always alert, ready in debate, 
strong in argument, earnest, and with such skill -in defending 
his party and its measures as often to make, as it appeared to 
me from my standpoint, the worse appear the better reason. 

1 can speak of him now only in general terms briefly. 

John E. Kenna entered this Senate at the same time that 1 
did, in 1883. Before his death I had come to know him well, 
and to respect and admire his qualities both of head and heart, 
all of which were fully developed, ripe, ready for use in their 
completeness when the inexorable decree called him hence. 

There are public men who attract to themselves by the very 
effervescence of their youthful experience; their speech is as 
the popping of corks and the spouting of wine from the bottle, 
they create excitement and they exhilerate. In their bearing 
is the breeziness of the mountain air of summer, which is strong 
but pleasant, and is appreciated mainly because man enjoys it 
blowing deliciously upon his brow. 

These youthful statesmen have the assertion of egotism, 
S. Mis. 00 5 



66 Address of Mr. CuIIom, of Illinois, on the 

the assurance of confidence, the temerity of inexperience, and 
armed cap-dtrgie, they seek adventure in politics — in statesman- 
ship. They are, as Ruskin says of the Knights of Spencer, 
sometimes deceived and sometimes vanquished, but "the soul 
of I "na is never darkened and the spear of Britomart is never 
broken." They dare everything, and walk with jaunty step 
along dangerous paths by any lamp of experience. 

In the success of their schemes they anticipate the millen- 
nium. They see glorious visions of what is to be. There 
are other public men who, without being aware of it, wear the 
lean and slippered pantaloon and in the discharge of public 
duty walk as with a crutch or cane. They look at all public 
questions through spectacles and in piping voice are forever 
saying, •■ Be in no haste; go on cautiously," or, "Stay; stand 
still awhile." or, "The proposed way is not the way of the 
past." John E. Kenna belonged to neither of these classes. 

At the time of his death he was at the very summit of life 
and of his intellectual powers, with a, broad field spread out 
before him over winch, if he had lived, he would have passed 
with vigorous step before going down on the other side. The 
experience of youth had taught him the unsubstantial character 
of hope and had impressed upon him the folly of yielding to 
impulse in the discharge of meat duties. He could consider a 
question without jumping to a conclusion upon it or falling 
into a nodding slumber over it. In short, mature judgment 
had given to him ability to act with wisdom and strength of 
mind, ability to act with vigor, and by reason of his sound 
mind and sound judgment he became years ago one of the 
leaders of his party, and what is known as a force in this 
body. 

At the commencement of the civil war associations and the 
impulses of youth made him battle against the tlag, but after 
the struggle was over and up to the time of his death his heart 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 67 

was filled with patriotic pride as he looked on the bright sis- 
terhood of States, each, in the language of Rufus Choate, 
"singing as a seraph in her motion, yet blending in a common 
beam and swelling a common harmony." 

Wise and experienced, Senator Kenna was withal a man of 

« 

kindly disposition ; a man of great, good heart. No mean prej- 
udice ever closed the flood gates of his sympathies, and he had 
an abounding faith in the people — in the high destiny of the 
human race. Iu the beggar in his rags, as well as in the king 
in his robes, he saw a man, the culmination of the work of the 
Creator; and although he was in no sense a visionary, he had 
glimpses occasionally, or thought he had, of the condition 
sung by Tennyson in "Locksley Hall." 

His band was open as the day, and his heart was a great temple in 
which thronged all the kindly emotions. 

John E. Kenna was a devoted friend, a patriotic citizen, 
an able statesman, a noble man. I place a flower of regret 
and affection upon his grave, and turn away from it with a sad 
heart. 



Address of Mr. Gray, of Delaware. 

Mr. President : It is so easy to speak of our late colleague 
in words of loving eulogy and praise that there is need to 
moderate rather than give full rein to the impulse of affection 
and admiration. 

I came into this body two years after Mr. Kenna, and was 
at once attracted by his noble presence and winning manner, 
and our acquaintance soon ripened into a friendship which 
will always remain one of the cherished memories of my serv- 
ice in this body. 



68 Address of Mr. Gray, of Delaware, on the 

He was a •• man among men," made in a large mold; noth- 
ing petty or mean found lodgment in his mind. Though he 
was a man of strong and positive convictions, he delighted to 
take large and generous views of public questions, and was too 
broad and catholic in his moral and intellectual nature to be 
intolerant of honest differences of opinion, or harsh in his 
judgments of other men. 

Ilis talents were of a very high order, and in his participa- 
tion in the debates of this body he always strengthened the 
side In- espoused. 

(lifted with a melodious voice, a tine and discriminating 
command of language, the earnest and fervid style in which 
his thought took shape made him an orator whose eloquence 
always challenged the attention of his fellows and the admi- 
ration of his friends. Though so young in years his public 
service was long and distinguished. 

His strong, thoughtful face and fine brow gave him a grave 
and statesmanlike demeanor that befitted the maturity of his 
mind and the strength of his character. He was a marked 
man everywhere. He Avas a strong partisan in the better sense 
of that word, and had much to do with the practical organiza- 
tion of the party to which he belonged. Yet in a close per- 
sonal and political friendship extending over nearly eight 
years I never heard him make a suggestion as to political 
action or utter a word as to party policy that was not high 
and honorable, or that if published from the housetops would 
not have defied the criticism of the most exacting political 
moralist. 

But it was as a man and a friend that 1 am sure we will all 
love to remember him. His cheery smile, his ready sympathy, 
his unselfish nature endeared him to his friends and made his 
companionship always delightful, lie was true, tender, and 
brave. Full of that social tact which springs from considera- 



Life and Character of John Edward A'enna. 69 

tion for the feelings and rights of others, his ready wit never 
left a rankling wound behind. 

lie craved the affection that it was his royal nature to bestow, 
and he received it from his fellows in unstinted measure. Sim- 
ple in his tastes — as great souls are apt to be — he passion- 
ately loved the woods and fields, the azureof the sky, and the 
smith wiud's gentle breath, and at nature's altar worshiped 
nature's God. How deep and true the fountain of his religious 
feeling was we were told by the reverend bishop of his church 
in that tender and beautiful address, which still lingers, I am 
sure, in the memory of us all. 

His demonstrative but unaffected devotion to his family may 
not be dwelt upon now, but it completed the circle of his 
character and crowned his life, as he would wish it crowned, 
with love. 

The Angel of 1 >eath, whose wings have shadowed the capital 
of the nation this winter, never summoned to its last account 
a truer, more knightly, or more lovable spirit than that of 
our late colleague, John E. Kenna. 

I loved him while he lived and I sincerely mourn his death. 

The hand of the reaper 

Takes the ears that are hoary, 
But the voice of the weeper 

Wails manhood in glory. 

The autumn winds rushing 

Waft the leaves that are searest, 
But our flower was in flushing, 

When blighting was nearest. 

How inscrutable are the ways of Providence. 

He fell in the pride and strength of his young manhood. 
His sun went down while it was yet high noon. To our finite 
view there seemed much of life yet to be lived by him; much 
he had done, so much yet to do, so many things that depended 



70 Address of Mr. I 'est, of Missouri, on the 

on him, so many for liiui to live for. For people of lii.s State 
who delighted to honor him, for the wife and children whom 
his death has made desolate, may the faith be theirs, that — 

The dark vale once trod, 
Heaven lifts its everlasting portals hij{h 
And bids the pure in heart behold their God. 



Address of Mr. Vest, of Missouri. 

Mr. President: The people of Missouri have watched with 
affectionate pride the public career of Senator Kenna and 
sincerely mourn at his grave. 

When a child of tender years he came with his mother to 
Missouri, and passed his boyhood upon the farm of his mater- 
nal uncle in Carroll County. 

I Hist met him in the fall of L861, then a boy of sixteen. 
He joined Gen. Price's army at the battle of Lexington. He 
served with the Missouri troops in the Trans-Mississippi De- 
partment during the war. surrendering with his command at 
Shreveport, La., in the spring- of 1865. 

Shortly after the close of hostilities he returned to his native 
State and entered upon the professional and political life which 
culminated in his becoming a member of this body. 

The intellect of Senator Kenna was quick, analytical, and 
aggressive. He was a fluent and pleasing speaker; stating 
his positions clearly and adhering tenaciously to the issues 
involved. 

lie possessed unquestionable talent for public affairs, and 
the future promised for him many honors. 

hi his social life he had qualities so charming and lovable 
that 1 shall always think of him as the genial, kindly com- 
panion of many happy hours. His Celtic origin gave him wit 



Life and ( haracter of John Edward Kenna. 71 

and repartee by heredity, and his frank, manly nature created 
and retained the wannest friendships. 

Natural and simple in all his tastes and habits, he was an 
ardent sportsman, and loved the mountains and livers and 
forests, amidst whose alternating sunshine and shadow lie pur- 
sued the sylvan sports that delighted ids vigorous manhood. 
Nature was his foster mother, and in the grand, still beauty of 
her solitudes he saw a mother's face. 

He has passed away in the prime of life, with much to make 
him linger if that were possible — the love of wife and children 
and friends, the confidence of a great State, and the certainty 
of a great career. 

We drape the bier in black, and yet there is much to make 
the custom questionable. 

Many hundreds of years ago a monarch with almost limitless 
power and wealth and knowledge, who sounded all the depths 
and shallows of our life, wrote the plaintive epitaph, "All is 
vanity and vexation of spirit." 

The centuries have gone by, and man has conquered all but 
death and the infinite hereafter. 

We whifcper from continent to continent along the floor of 
ocean, chain the lightning from heaven, and snatch a sunbeam 
with which to paint a woman's picture, and yet amidst all this 
splendor of invention and achievement, what intellectual man 
has not asked himself in the silent watches of the night, "Does 
it not require more courage to live than to die?" 



Address of Mr. Stewart, of Nevada. 

Mr. President : I made the acquaintance of the late Senator 
Kenna six years ago this month. We soon became friends. 
Our friendship continued without interruption until his death. 



72 Address of Mr. Stewart, of Nevada, on the 

He was kindhearted, generous, genial, honest, and fearless. I 
was fond of his society. His manly qualities, good sense, and 
cordial greeting commanded the respect and liigh regard of all 
who had the good fortune to know him well. 

The political career of Mr. Kknna illustrates the possibilities 
which this Republic affords to a self-made man. Of humble 
parentage and limited advantages he rose through his own 
efforts to eminent distinction as a lawyer, statesman, and 
scholar. His career in the House of Representatives was so 
distinguished that his fellow-citizens of West Virginia testified 
their appreciation of his public services by transferring him to 
the Senate of the United States. His addresses in this body 
were characterized by force and thought, and bore evidence of 
great learning and research. But his peculiar characteristic 
was his extreme modesty. Amid the plaudits and commen- 
dations which followed his public efforts, he exhibited no pride 
of place, but rather shrank from praise. 

He was a true American citizen of the hest type. His motives 
and intentions were always honest and straightforward, and 
he was inclined to think well of his associates and appreciate 
their good qualities rather than to criticise their shortcomings. 

His kind and generous nature inspired kindness and gen- 
erosity in others. The pleasure of his society was never 
marred by the slightest trace of bitterness or unkindness. His 
deatii was an irreparable loss to his family and his immediate 
relatives, and a source of deep sorrow to all who knew him well. 

He contributed his full share to make the world better and 
increase the enjoyment of others, which is the highest praise 
the living can extend to the dead. He performed every duty 
faithfully and conscientiously, and deserved and received the 
respect of associates and friends. His strong common sense 
and intellectual power gave him a prominence in the Senate 
of which he seemed entirely unconscious. 



Life and L haracter of John Edward Kenna. ~'-i 

The example he has set, for the youth of our country who 

are struggling under adverse circumstances to rise to positions 
ut' influence and usefulness is of inestimable value. Words 
can not mitigate sorrow for Hie death of such a man, but his 
good deeds and honorable name are not only a rich inheri- 
tance but a consolation to those who were near and dear to him. 



Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia. 

Mr. President : Iu mourning the death of John E. Kenn a, 
Virginia is again one and undivided, as seamless as the gar- 
ment of our rewoven Union. While West Virginia sent him 
to the Senate, no boundary line ever parted his affections from 
the people of the Commonwealth as it existed when he was 
born, and they in turn took pride in him and honored and 
loved him well. 

Within the bygone year, when May was quickening leaf and 
flower, he announced to the Senate the death of my colleague, 
John S.Barbour, who had sunk to rest in the fullness of years. 
When the snows of January lay heaped upon his native hills 
he, our younger brother, was borne from our side to his long 
sleep amongst them, and it is my part now to speak of him 
who thus fell in mid career. 

I shall not recite the story of his life and fortunes, so graph- 
ically has this been done by his colleague and those who have 
preceded me. But I held his character and services in great 
esteem; 1 admired his talents; I was bound to him by ties of 
friendship, which continuously grew stronger; and such trib- 
ute as 1 can pay him flows from a heart that was in sympathy 
with his history, and felt joyous pride in his achievements. 

Around the equestrian statue of Washington in Richmond 
is a group of Revolutionary heroes. Amongst them stands the 



74 Address of Mr. Daniel, of I 'irginia, on the 

picturesque figure of Andrew Lewis, the Indian fighter, in 
hunting shirt and buckskin leggings. From him the hero of 
Point Pleasant, the conquerer of Comstock, the pioneer who 
cleared the Virginia and Ohio frontier of its savage foes — from 
him KENNA was a lineal descendant. Those who love to trace 
hereditary traits might discover in the character, tastes, and 
aptitudes of the scion resemblances to the ancestral stock from 
which it sprang. 

As he was the youngest member when he took his seat in 
the Forty-fifth Congress, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, 
so was he likewise one of the youngest soldiers who bore arms 
in the civil war, in whose travail the young State whose Sen- 
ator he was sprung to being, a trooper in the < Jonfederate cav- 
alry at sixteen, and a scarred veteran years before the estate 
of manhood. 

Possessed of a strong and graceful figure, an open, engaging 
countenance, an ardent, ambitious heart, and a quick, penetra- 
tive intellect that mastered the tasks it undertook, he had that 
passion for enterprise and adventure which was the quicken- 
ing pulse of the pioneers. From plow to saber, from saber to 
school, from school to the law book, his early struggles passed 
quickly, until at the age of twenty-one he was back in the 
county of Kanawha, where he was born, a poor and briefless 
barrister in environments which repelled his hopes and under 
laws that disfranchised him from the practice of his profession. 

The situation would have daunted a less courageous spirit. 

All honor to the republican institutions of this country and 
to the deej) seated republican spirit of the people which so 
quickly swept away the barriers to his professional and politi- 
cal triumphs. All honor to our free constitutions, for under 
them and the electoral machinery they put in motion no mili- 
tary despotism or political tyranny can long endure, no class 
can be long suppressed or oppressed, no exclusive privileges 
can be long monoplized. 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 75 

That John E. Kknna so soon rose to eminence in a State 
created in protest against the ideas which he foughl for, and 
should be supported by those who had contended against him, 
is a typical representative fact on a glorious history which 
attests the wisdom of our free Government. It should endear 
us to the Republic and to the people who have so triumphed 
over sordid things as to give cheer and comfort to lovers of 
liberty all over the world. 

He desired that his life should illustrate so notably the prin- 
ciples it stood for. He was a born Democrat in the most ele 
rated sense of the word. He was a man of the people; sprung 
from them, uplifted by them, loving them, and beloved by 
them, and in all things true, to them. The influences of power 
never cowed his spirit or diverted his course. 

The generous and independent instincts of his heart as well 
as the clear vision of his mind wedded him to the Democratic 
teachings of popular sovereignty, yet who can doubt that his 
devotion to them was intensified by his own experiences of 
their efficacy to heal wounds, soothe passions, restore order, 
establish justice, and recreate progress out of the ruins of 
destructive and demoralizing war. 

The dangers of this Republic are not overpassed. They will 
thicken as wealth and population increase, as corporations 
multiply, as central powers are magnified by the exactions of 
growth, and as the strain on them is enhanced by the immense 
interests that come within their administrative jurisdiction. 
We shall need again, we need now, we shall evermore need 
incorruptible and courageous men like Kenna to fight the bat- 
tles of popular prerogative against all these influences, subtle 
and fascinating as they are, which gradually lead the Republic 
to ape the splendors of imperialism and through its very glories 
to undermine its simple faiths and turn away its blessed aims. 

It is to be hoped that he is the type of many of his kind, 



76 Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia, on the 

and we bid those who look high to take courage in the record 
of this noble man — 

Whose life in low estate began, 
Who grasped the skirts of happy chance, 
Breasted the blows of circumstance 
And made by force liis merit known, 
And lived to clutch the golden keys, 
To mold a mighty State's decrees, 
And shape the whisper of the throne. 

The personal qualities of our deceased friend have now 
become cherished reminiscences. He possessed a genius fertile 
and diversified which might have developed into many forms 
of distinction. Had he eschewed politics for zealous devotion 
to his profession, his keen perception of facts, his powers of 
expression, his just spirit might have made him a great barrister 
or an illustrious judge. 

He had what lawyers term a legal mind, keenly analytical, 
eh >scly logical, penetrating through rules to the reasousof them ; 
interpreting its conceptions with lucid statements that linked 
themselves into arguments. Whether in set speech or running 
debate his powers lifted him to the height of all occasions. He 
was an organizer, measuring opposite forces and training those 
he led against them. 

In delicate and difficult situations he was no rash actor. 
Natural impetuosity was curbed by will and saving common 
sense, and he became the wise adviser. Many there are who 
equaled or surpassed him in some one of many things, but few 
who could do so many things so well, and rarer still are they 
who accomplished so much under such conditions as he dealt 
with. His ability was constructive whether he worked with 
hand or brain. 

With natural mechanical skill he built with his own hand 
the boats in which he floated in hunting and fishing excursions 
on the Potomac or the waters of his native State. He was the 



Life and Character of Jolin Edward Kt nna. 77 

architect of the attractive house in which he resided here, and 
in its ornamentation may be seen alike his design and his handi- 
work. 

The simple but tasteful Catholic church from which he was 
buried was built on plans of which he was the draftsman. 

He loved nature. The gim and the rod were his constant 
companions. Be was at home with the fisherman and duck 
shooters of the seaboard, and with the deer-slayers of the 
mountains. He was an amateur photographer seeking to 
fasten the beautiful and grand features of nature, or to 
catch the fleeting scenes of the wilderness or the domestic 
hearth that crossed his fancy. There is no more lifelike or 
attractive relic of the departed statesman, James B. Beck, 
than the picture of him taken by Kenna, as he sat with his 
dog under a spreading oak. He was full of good fellowship, 
a genial companion, a social favorite ; and he had friends 
because he was a friend. 

He was a man of a great, loyal, loving heart, and it was 
through this fact, as well as by dint of his decisive character 
and mental force, that he was the successful advocate of meas- 
ures and a leader of men. 

In political life-he found a fitting theater for his abilities. On 
the hustings he was eloquent, persuasive, powerful, effective. 
In party councils he was a guiding spirit. In the Senate he 
took high rank with thinkers and debaters, and had he lived 
in health and strength his popularity and his accomplishments 
would have magnified his career into one of still more brilliant 
honor to himself and of vast beneficence to the State and nation 
which he served. 

His home was his shrine. It was there that his gentle nature 
found and shed earth's richest joys amongst wife, children, 
and friends. I will not turn aside the screen that hides from 
the world's vision those to whom his death is calamity uuspeak- 



78 Address of Mr. Daniel \ of Virginia, on the 

able. In his good name and memory they have all that death 
can leave to alleviate its pang, save the supreme consolation 
which is theirs, that he looked devoutly and trustingly to the 
source of lite and light. 

He did not say prayers on street corners to be seen of men; 
but he said them and he felt them, and his heart went forth to 
"whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are lovely, 
« hat soever things are above reproach." On one of the bleakest 
days of this bleak winter the committee of the Senate and 
I louse of Representatives bore his body hence to its final earthly 
home in the county where he was born, in the capital of his 
State. The State received her dead son with every mark of 
respect and sorrow. 

The governor, ex-governor, and governor-elect, judges, legis- 
lators, officials, and the people en masse from far and near 
poured forth to his funeral rites. In the church which he had 
planned and to whose membership he belonged, the good priest 
commended his soul to his Maker, and then in the cemetery on 
one of the mountain knobs that overtower the town, in the 
primeval forest he was consigned to dust. 

Far and wide was winter's waste of snow. Not a bird flew 
across the mountain pathway to the tomb. The dumb crea- 
tures of the woods had taken shelter from the storm. All 
nature seemed benumbed with cold. Over street and lane and 
housetop, over field and hill and valley, over the motionless 
river at the foot of the hills lay the universal shroud. The 
boats frozen in the rigid stream lifted their white masts, and 
the naked trees stretched their gaunt, white arms against the 
sky, while range on range, peak piled on peak rose the gleam 
ing mountains "clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful." 

Sensibility was anguish, vision was desolation, the heart 
had no interpreter but a freezing tear, the ear no prophet but 
a moan. As the coffin lowered the siiowtlakes thickened on 



Life and Character of John Edward Kcnna. 79 

its black pall, and as the mound was shaped upon the grave it 
whitened as it grew. Never to me seemed earth so cheerless, 
its distinctions so small, life so frail, ambition so empty, 
humanity so mortal. 

Yet the very grandeur of the scene filled the soul with exul- 
tation. Through its somber, weird magnificence shone the 
majesty of Him who knows the sparrow's fall, and the sub- 
lime assurance, "I am the Eesurrection and the Life,'' seemed 
to issue from llis throne. 



ADDRESS OF MR. HAWLEY, OF CONNECTICUT. 

Mr. President: I gladly consent to pay my tribute to the 
memory of Senator Kenna. 

We first met as members of the House in the Forty-sixth 
Congress, nearly fourteen years ago, and there his frank, 
manly, generous character won him love and respect on all 
sides, overriding the widest differences of war and peace. 

I never heard from him a malicious word nor saw on his 
countenance an angry look, and trom the first I have reckoned 
myself among his warm friends. 

He was a well-balanced man in his vigorous physique and 
intellectual force, his strong and well-governed temper, and his 
honorable ambition. 

His life was a noble example of the possibilities of a republic. 

He was without fault in his domestic life and faithful to all 
his moral convictions, as a citizen, a patriot, and a legislator. 
With an unfaltering trust in his religious belief he has gone 
out "to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a 
manly heart." 



80 Address of Mr. Camden, of West I 'irginia, on the 



Address of Mr. Camden, of West Virginia. 

Mr. President : It was my privilege to know Senator Kenna 
intimately from his early manhood to the time of his death, 
and standing here to-day as his successor upon this floor I am 
profoundly impressed with the irreparable loss sustained not 
only by our State but by this body iu his early death. 

A great English statesman, addressing the House of Com- 
mons upon the death of a distinguished colleague, said: 

There is this consolation remaining to us when we remember our 
unequaled and irreparable losses, that those great men are not altogether 
lost to us; that their words will often be quoted in this House; that their 
expressions will form part of our discussions and debates. There are 
now, I may say, some members of Parliament who, though they may not 
be present, are still members of this House, who are independent of disso- 
lution and even of the course of time. 

And, Mr. President, it may be appropriately said of John 
E. Kenna that seldom has the United States Senate paused 
to pay tribute to the memory of one of its members who lias 
left behind so many friendships and tender memories. It is 
not so much that he had talents to command our attention 
and richness of language and charms of oratory that excited 
our admiration as it was his genial, frank nature, his attrac- 
tive companionship, and generous, manly qualities that so 
endeared him to us all that, though he be not present, he will 
long remain associated in our memories as a member of this 
body. 

Senator Kenna was the type of man to command the 
admiration and win the love not only of the people of his State, 
but all who knew him. He had few of the arts of the poli- 
tician about him, and none of the weaknesses or diseases of 
little great men. He was a typical West Virginian, sprung 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 81 

from her soil, and a true type of her best manhood. He loved 
every inch of her domain, and gave to her the best enemies 
of his life. 

Her mountains and her streams were to him not only the 
scenes of his prowess with gun and rod, but embraced the 
homes of the people who had contributed to his early suc- 
cesses, his pastimes, and his pleasures; and among the remi- 
niscences which circle around the fireside of more than one 
mountain home in his old district are the recollections that 
John E. Kenna had shared their hospitality, and added to 
their pleasures by his genial companionship and the sunshine 
of his presence. 

These people, Mr. President, mourn not so much for John 
E. Kenna the Senator, as for John E. Kenna their associate 
and friend. The official designation which he carried among 
men was lost in the relationship which he bore to them. His 
frank and natural bearing and his freedom from pretension 
and egotism was the open road to their respect and afi'ectiou. 

Mr. President, we find in the Congressional Directory a brief 
sketch of Mr. Kenna, modestly made by himself, which 'forci- 
bly illustrates his character and career in a few words. At 
sixteen years of age he entered the Confederate army as a pri- 
vate soldier, was wounded in that service in 1864, and was sur- 
rendered at Shreveport, La., in 1865. How pathetic is this 
brief story. A boy of sixteen, wounded in battle, carrying the 
musket of a private soldier, and a prisoner of war at the age 
of seventeen. 

At twenty-two he was admitted to the bar; at twenty-four 
he was prosecuting attorney of the great county of Kanawha; 
at twenty-seven he was elected by the bar, under statutory 
provisions, a judge; at twenty-nine he was a Representative 
in Congress; at thirty-five he was a Senator. 

Sueh is the brief, outlined history of the boy and the man 
who was justly the pride of his native State. 

S. Mis. 66 6 



82 Address of Mr. c amden, of West I 'irgiuia, on the 

Born in the State which accorded to him her highest honors, 
on the 10th day of April, 1818, we find that up to the still 
watches of the early morn when loving hands soothed the 
anguish of his dying hour, the story of his life is measured by 
less than forty-five summers. But within the cycle of those 
years John E. Kenna had served as soldier, lawyer, judge, 
and for sixteen years as a member of both branches of Con- 
gress; and at his death, after a service often years in this 
body, was still, in age, one of its youngest members. 

lie was descended from a strong race of people. His father, 
Edward Kenna, was au Irishman by birth, of commanding 
presence, who emigrated to this country at an early age. His 
mother was the daughter of John Lewis, whose family was 
distinguished in the pioneer history of the settlement of Vir- 
ginia west of the Alleghany Mountains, made memorable by 
the battle of Point Pleasant. His father died early in life, 
leaving young Kenna an orphan, at the age of eight years, to 
struggle for a place in the fortunes of life almost unaided. 

Through the kindness of friends and the partiality and 
beneVoleuce of the late Bishop Whelan he eutered St. Vincent's 
College, at Wheeling, after his release as a prisoner of war in 
the Confederate service, where he remained long enough to 
obtain a liberal education, and was afterwards admitted to 
the bar at the age of twenty-two years. 

Mr. President. I said in the beginning that I had known 
Senator Kenna intimately from his earliest manhood, and I 
recall with pleasurable emotions many events in his career as 
we passed together along life's pathway. 

Soon after his admission to the bar. in the year 1872, I was 
the candidate of my party, holding its regular nomination for 
the office of governor, and in canvassing his section of the 
State (the old Third Congressional district of West Virginia) 
I met John E. Kenna, in the early morning of his splendid 



Life and Character of Joint Edward Kama. 83 

young manhood. I was at once attracted and impressed l>y 
his handsome and commanding appearance, liis warm, heart] 
cordiality, and his impetuous and generous nature. 

He was then in his first canvass before the people for 
the office of prosecuting attorney of Kanawha County, and 
although the day of election was near at hand, and his own 
chances of election by no means secure, he insisted u] aban- 
doning his own canvass and accompanying me through the 
mountain counties of his district, against the protest of some 
of his friends. 

I recall, as though it were yesterday, many of his speeches 
on that occasion. Youthful in appearance, earnest, logical, 
and captivating, he made friends and won the hearts of his 
audiences. On one occasion, standing upon the ground beneath 
the shade of a wide-spreading tree, he so attracted and 
impressed his audience with his youthful eloquence and fer- 
vor, and such was his magnetism, that an old mountain friend 
approached him gradually closer and closer until he stood by 
his side and rested his hand upon his shoulder, aud as the 
young orator made his telling points his old friend responded by 
approving gesticulations even more earnestly and vigorously 
than the gestures of the speaker himself. 

1 refer to such incidents, Mr. President, not ouly because it 
serves to illustrate the generous, unselfish nature of the friend 
to whose memory we pay this sad tribute to-day, but because 
memory delights to wander back and associate itself with the 
incidents of the everyday life of friends as we knew them best 
and loved them most. 

Hi.s election as prosecuting attorney followed, and was his 
first popular triumph. His touch with the people soon devel- 
oped into a popularity which challenged his ambition to serve 
his people in Congress, and we find him within two years 
after his election as prosecuting attorney entering the list 
as a candidate for the nomination for Congress, in his dis- 



84 Address of Mr. Camden, of West Virginia, on the 

trict. and although defeated by a few votes for the nomina- 
tion, he accepted the disappointment as he always accepted 
the result of his party's action, but with the determination to 
be a candidate again at the next election two years thereafter. 

And in the year 1876 he again became a candidate for his 
party's nomination against two very strong men as his com- 
petitors, the Hon. Frank Hereford and Henry S. Walker. Mr. 
Walker was an orator of rare ability, who, although a com- 
paratively young man, already possessed a reputation through- 
out the State as one of her most gifted sons and fascinating 
public speakers. 

Mr. Hereford had served the district in Congress for three 
terms, and by efficient public service succeeded to the chair- 
manship of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors, at that 
time the most active agency toward the improvement of the 
Great Kanawha River through governmental aid, the then 
absorbing question of interest to the people of that section 
of the State, and whose reelection was strongly urged by 
many of the most influential citizens of the district. 

But Mr. Kenna found his way to the hearts and confidence 
of the people, and the Congressional convention of the old 
Third district, which met in August, 1876, in the city of 
Charleston, is memorable for its long and stubbornlj* fought 
contest, the balloting continuing for three days, and at mid- 
night of the third day young Kenna's candidacy was crowned 
with success and he was borne in triumph on the shoulders 
of his loyal friends, who had stood by his banner throughout 
the varying vicissitudes of the contest. 

It is fitting to call to mind here, Mr. President, that all 
three of the competitors in that noted struggle of a few 
,\ ears ago have passed over to the great majority on the other 
shore — Hereford, in the ripeness of years and honors, after 
having served as a member of this body, as well as in the 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 85 

House of b'epresentatives; the brilliant Walker, in the noon- 
time of life — and to-day we mourn Ki,.\na. 

Mr. Kknna took hi.s seat in the other end of the Capitol, in 
the special session of the Forty-fifth Congress, on the L5th day 
of October, 1S77. 

His abilities were recognized at the very threshold of his 
Congressional life. He was at once assigned to the Committee 
on Commerce, where he rendered signal service to the people 
of his district in carrying forward the improvement of the 
Great Kanawha and its tributary streams, in which his con- 
stituents were deeply interested. 

Samuel J. Randall, the great Democratic leader, while 
Speaker of the Forty-sixth Congress, in speaking of Mr. 
Kenna in a letter to friend, said: 

Iknew the moment I first saw him that Mr. Kenna was a strongman. He 
impressed me by his honesty of purpose, the clearness and directness of 
his -views, his knowledge of parliamentary law. and his courage and read- 
iness in debate. I predict for him a brilliant career. 

Such was the estimate placed upon Mr. Kknna by the man who 
has been described by a political opponent as "the strongest 
force of half a century." And, Mr. President, the prediction of 
the then Speaker of the House was more than verified by the 
future. 

Mr. Kenna's election to the Senate was Hie natural and 
merited reward, earned by his service in the House. He was 
elected for the term commencing on the 4th of March, L883, 
soon after reelection to his fourth term in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

He was elected to succeed Hon. Henry G. Davis, who de 
clined to be a candidate for reelection. 1 had the pleasure, as 
his friend, of welcoming him to his seat in this body as my col- 
league, serving with him four years, receiving from him the 
same courtesy and friendship that I had received from him 
throughout life to its close. He was again elected his own sue- 



86 Address of Mr. Camden, of West Virginia, on the 

cessor in January, 1889, for the term which, through the will 

of an all-wise and inscrutable Providence, he left vacant before 
its expiration. 

Dying almost under the shadow of this Capitol, he was laid 
to rest on the 14th day of January last, with the rites of that 
ancient faith whose teachings he followed through life, and 
with the best honors which his State and country could bestow. 
He sleeps in the earth of his native State, on the sunny slope 
of one of her hills overlooking the valley of the beautiful 
Kanawha. 

The West Virginia legislature, which was at the time in ses- 
sion, promptly availed itself of the provisions of the Federal 
statute authorizing each State to contribute to the Memorial 
Hall of the National Capitol the statues of two of her departed 
citizens, who have been conspicuous in her history, by passing 
a bill making an appropriation for that purpose. So that John 
E. Kenna, the first to receive such honor from his State, will 
live in marble in the Nation's Capitol as well as in the hearts 
of the people of his State; and the devoted friend whose 
earnest energy aided in bringing about so promptly this well- 
merited tribute illustrates life's friendships, that do not end 
with the grave. 

Mr. President, almost the first words spoken by Mr. Kenna 
in the House of Representatives, and his last words in this 
body, were delivered on such occasions as this. Eloquent, 
tender, and touching words they were. The first was a tribute 
to Judge Leonard, a Representative from the State of Louisiana, 
who, like himself, was richly endowed with noble qualities, and 
who, like himself, died before he had reached the noonday of 
his life. His last public utterance in this body was an announce- 
ment of Senator Barbour's death. 

The impressive language of Senator Kenna in honor of his 
friend, Judge Leonard, spoken in the House fourteen years 



Life and Charactet of John Edward Kenna. 87 

ago, and referred to by the Senator from Maine, is to-day 
almost as applicable to bis own memory as they were then to 
Judge Leonard; and I can qo1 close my tribute to the memory 
of our departed friend more appropriately than by quoting bis 
own words on that occasion. Be said: 

Mr. Speaker, in the catting off of one in the prime and vigor of early 
manhood, with a life only half spent, the glory of achievements rising in 
beauteous visions of a future that is not tor him, there is something which 
makes an impression different from thai which comes from the departure 
of one in the fullness of bis years. 1 do not mean that the power of choice 
would enable us to determine that age ami experience could be better sur- 
rendered than youth ami promise. 

The need of snch a decision has been wisely spared bj an all seeing, 
beneficent Providence. Nor would 1 lie understood to intimate a want of 
consideration for those who have realized the l'njl measure of three score 
and ten. There is an attraction about the silvery frost of seventy winters 
which the yellow saints of thirty summers can not possess. 

There is something akin to another world in a head that is already 
shrouded in white, ami hence the mystic veneration for gray hairs, which 
has become prominent among the acknowledged virtues of mankind. But 
when death invades the ranks of fresh maturity and snatches the fruit 
that is ripening there it seems to come before its time, and to gather to-day 
the harvests of to-morrow. Such a visitation seems a denial, rather than 
an end of life. 

Mr. President, I ask for the adoption of the resolutions. 

The Presiding Officer (Mr. Cullom in the chair). The 
question is on agreeing to the resolutions. 

Tlte resolutions were unanimously agreed to; and the Senate 
(at 6 o'clock and LV> minutes p. m.) adjourned until to-morrow, 
Tuesday, February 28, 1893, at 11 o'clock a. m. 



EULOGIES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



Thursday, March 2, 1893. 

Mr. Aldeeson. I offer the resolution which I send to the 

Clerk's desk. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House of Representatives has heard with profound sor- 
row of the death of Hon. John E. Eenna, late a Senator from the State of 
West Virginia, and a former member of this House. 

That the business of this House be suspended, that appropriate honors 
may bo paid to the memory of the deceased. 

That the Clerk of the House of Representatives be directed to transmit 
to the family of the deceased a copy of these resolutions. 



ADDRESS OF MR. ALDERSON, OF WEST VIRGINIA. 

Mr. Speaker : Death iu his stern impartiality has in the last 
few months reaped a rich harvest from the ranks of the leaders 
and statesmen of the Republic, and there is mourning in the 
castles as in the hovels; there is sorrow among the rich and 
powerful, as among the poor and lowly. 

In the list of prominent men ofthe nation but recently claimed 
by the grim and merciless destroyer is numbered West Vir- 
ginia's most illustrious and best beloved son. 

Those of us who knew him best and loved him most, sorrow 
for him with a distress too deep for expression by human 
tongue, and we will keep green the fond memories we have of 
him and of his kindly acts and good works. 



.ing from the sress _ieh he in former 

. - - ftheSta< 

him as he 
a by bnt few mem Theadmir - — -had 

for him was measured by their - 55 to So 

in all truth, n 

.rrhnnia- 
bound " blood a^ s 

In polities he was my chief, my leader a" 

:y prince among n _ianwhom 

whom I belir superior i He 

-ip: and It - - 
willl this - aiywonr _ 

~hatma - - • _ 

to my dead fi: - .It 

can I - good leogl har- 

I -hall be brief in what I may hs 

- - 
- - - in pubL :.dl will. 

t more of him as I fc 
him in private life and in his iraetei 

public position may perchance be filled, but in 
- 
- 

earth . 

ssed spirit to 1 

human li : 
- - - :cd by L - - ind 

- - lown in the prime of his man- 

iseJ - - - rdy oak - 

. - 

5. his promises ling shin- 



amdCkara. 

ing mark, and by the inscrutable will of thi 
whose wisdom and jr. -• cd by him, he 

was called away from a life so full of promise to h; 
and overflowing with fond ho: es 1 I hose who were nearest 
and dearest to him and loved him with pur- - 

The people of the State to whose best inte. - 
wedded and so devoted and served so faithfully. ud of 

his record as a statesman and of 1 : and 

advocate; bnt his friends dwell longest and with most pie - 
upon the recollections which they have of him in Li- 
life, audi- ss i companion. In el - ?athy 
and touch with our people: understanding them better and 
being by them better understood and more Trusted than any 
other of our public men. his death has brought son 
whole State. 

. Up and down our valleys, watered by our beautiful r: 
from mountain top to mountain top. which he in fife loved so 
wen, the sad tidings of L - e gone 1 "... and our 

entire people are in mourning — mourning for our bri_ test 
jewel — mourning universally. The heart of the honest moun- 
taineer wells up in his bosom and tears come to his 
^l" :.: ~r\ — '„-:. '..--.r~ r-— '■■-:■* :"..v I --' ~ >: :_ .::.- : :i-: L.ii.1 
of the man who was the idol of our plain people: and the 
rich meet their neigh! • : - - : ivored with earthly possessions 
upon common ground in the general sorrow, and they together 
blend their tears over the grave of one of the most gifted 
men our State has ever produced. 

I have seen him in his early manhood, standing 
grave of one who in life - ■ :y dear to him: I have seen him 
upon the hustings, speaking words of burning eloquence to an 
admiring populace: I have seen him in the humble home of 
the West Virginia mountaineer, with appreciative heart and 
-i .t-r.-.r-l ..:_: "..;:?;■ . t _ _ ;:;■-_: ._• :1- -'. :_- 1 -" .: /.:*;■" - .- 



f>2 Address of Mr. Alderson^ of West I 'irginia, on the 

erously extended; I have seen him, dignified and with easy 
grace, in the habitations of the rich, in the midst of pomp and 
luxury, the fruits of unstinted wealth; I have seen him by the 
camp fire, surrounded by the men of our mountains, his com- 
panions in the chase; I have seen him in the court room, plead- 
ing for the life of a client; I have seen him in politics, the 
intended victim of treachery and misplaced confidence; I have 
seen him in the flush of victory, the center of enthusiastic 
friends; I have seen him among his colleagues here, brilliant 
and interesting; 1 have seen him in conference with his friends, 
when his and their interests were at stake; I have seen him 
upon the floor of the Senate delivering masterly addresses; I 
have seen him in enforced retirement, battling with disease; 
I have seen him by the side of his own hearthstone, surrounded 
by his family; I have seen him on his deathbed, his life ebb- 
ing out; I have seen him amid all vicissitudes which can 
come to man, and I have always seen about him that < rod-given 
and strange influence, felt and not capable of description — 
that something strong, great, kind, and gentle which made 
friends of enemies, and led captive the hearts of his fellows 
with whom he came in contact. 

We had no other man among us who was like him. and there 
was no other man among us so much admired and respected. 

But few men have been endowed by the Creator with so 
lovable a disposition and character; birt few men have had 
combined in them so many elements which draw to them and 
bind with strongest ties of devotion their fellows; but few men 
have been able to secure and hold so many true hearts and sin- 
cere friendships. Truly to know him was to love him. 

He was indeed a typical West Virginian. His character 
was as lofty as the mountains of his native State; his intellect 
was as bright as the sunshine which illumines our mountain 
peaks; his will was as strong as the torrents which rush from 



Life and C 'haracter of John Edward Kama. 93 

their founts among our lulls on their way to the sea; his mind 
was as pure as the limpid waters of our great rivers; his heart 
was as gentle as the soft summer breezes which stir the foli- 
age in the trees; his ideas were not circumscribed by the 
boundaries of our vast domain, but even reached out and passed 
beyond the confines of the Republic, encompassing in their 
magnitude every land where man has taken up his abode, and 
centered and concentrated in the great and noble purpose to 
do good to all those created in the image of the Architect of 
the universe — his fellow-beings. 

His mission in life was to do good. His acts of kindness 
and deeds of charity if known would fill a volume. He had 
the happy faculty of accommodating himself always to the sur- 
roundings and surrounding circumstances. Verily, as has 
been said of him most truly, "he was a man among men, and 
a child among children.'' 

His character strengthened the regard entertained for him 

and disarmed resentments. A distinguished West Virginian, 

in speaking of him quite recently, very aptly and elocpiently 

said : 

So kindly and so gracious were the influences of bis nature that he who 
passed within the radius of his influence found hostility disarmed, and 
quickly became bis friend. 

He was a born leader of men. To be his friend once was to 
be his friend always. And there was no sinister motive behind 
the love his friends entertained for him. The friendships 
formed for him were pure and unmercenary. He was a poor 
man, and was admired for himself, for his noble manhood and 
stern devotion to principle. He regarded his friends for what 
they were themselves, and not for their position or worldly 
gear, and they in return measured him by the same rule and 
found him not wanting. 

Simple in his habits and tastes, his life, public and private, 
was a continued protest against the fast growing love and de 



9-1 . iddress of Mr. . llderson, of West Virginia, on the 

moralizing greed for wealth, and his lofty ambition and proud 
reeord were untarnished by the breath of suspicion. 

A truer and more earnesi and sincere man never lived. He 
was a politician, yet a statesman of the highest order, and his 
word given in politics, as in other affairs, was his bond, never 
to be violated or broken. He scorned a mean act and detested 
hypocrisy, insincerity, and duplicity. 

Kind-hearted, generous almost to a fault, charitable, firm and 
unyielding in the right, yet always open to conviction, he was 
the same man at all times, amid all surroundings, and under 
all circumstances. Whether as an orphan boy and a day 
laborer, toiling to support his widowed mother and his sisters; 
as a youthful soldier half starved and poorly clad, fighting for 
the right, as he saw it; as a young lawyer striving for success; 
as a Representative of the people, hewing out his way to promi- 
nence; as a Senator of the United States, dealing herculean 
blows in behalf of lighter burdens for the people, and free and 
untrammeled franchise, he has been found always true, honest, 
sincere, kind, manly, and courageous. 

With an unsullied reputation he defied the leprosy of cor- 
rupting influence. In a position which brought power and 
begets wealth for many in like station, he died as he had lived, 
clean-handed, without spot or blemish. In every station in 
life 

He walked attended by a strong-aiding champion — conscience. 

In the man, his life, and untimely death we have before us 
subjects for reflection — an example to emulate, a sorrow never 
to be forgotten, and a hope fondly to be cherished. 

Ami John Edward Kenna was a Christian; a devout and 
earnest believer in tin- gospel of salvation. Without ostenta- 
tion or show, with the coinage of his convictions in religion as 
in everything else, he carried into his everyday life that enno- 
bling and refining influence born of faith in the immortality of 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 95 

the soul, and of hope and trust in the existence beyond the 
grave. I hiring the months of sickness preceding his death he 
manfully fought disease with that courage which characterized 
his every act in life, and was ever patient when undergoing 
pain and suffering, and resigned at all times to the will of the 
Great Master. 

When the end came he was not unprepared. lie met the 
final summons unflinchingly, and without fear began the jour- 
ney to " that bourne from whence no traveler returns." His 
departure from earth was peaceful, and when his soul passed 
into the shadows of the great beyond, the dear ones about him 
realized that he was not dead, but had entered upon the new 
life eternal in the heavens. 

Then, as lie had wished it, with sad hearts and loving hands, 
we carried back the earthly tenement to the laud of his birth, 
and on the mountain overlooking the great river he had labored 
so arduously and successfully to improve, and the home in 
which he had passed so many happy hours, we gave back to 
earth the receptacle of the spirit of the friend we had loved 
so well; and around his grave new resolves were made to be 
worthy in future of the friendship the great heart now motion- 
less had accorded in the past, and determinations were formed 
so to live as to deserve to meet him and to dwell with him in 
the blessed life everlasting. 



Address of Mr. Bingham, of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Speaker: John Edward Kenna, of West Virginia, 
entered a Representative of the Forty- fifth Congress as one of 
the youngest members in years. He rapidly rose to uistin. 
guished standing and recognized usefulness. In becoming .. 
member of the Forty-sixth Congress I found him regarded as 



96 Address of Mr. Bingham^ of Pennsylvania^ on the 

a Representative of force, character, ability, and integrity, as 
well as a man fearless, aggressive, and able in debate. 

He had in two short years made a record distinctive and 
well defined, his individuality recognized, his personality pro- 
nounced. A useful career opened, and rich, fruitful results 
followed. As he saw his duty he did it, and he did it well, 
fully, and conscientiously. Our friendship then formed grew; 
grew firm, strong, and closer with each successive year. 

In his early death our common country lost a most conspicu- 
ous figure in public legislative life. I lost a loved, dear, cher- 
ished, and personal friend. 

Senator Kenna's young life was lustrous with marked 
achievements, and his career masterful. His good record is 
perpetuated in the annals of our Government. 

He was one of the most lovely and lovable of men in his 
social life. Truly can it be said of him, " Whom the gods love 
die young." He had a grace, gentleness, devotion, and tender- 
ness that drew his friends to him with hooks of steel. He was 
true, sincere, and devoted. He loved his dog and gun, and 
the sports and pastimes of the field a.;d stream were his health, 
his joy, and the greatest sources of renewed strength and life. 

He was ever a companion, but always a man. Every trust 
and confidence reposed in him was sacred. He delighted in 
debate — the mental conflict — "he suitt'ed the battle from afar." 
He was ambitious, heroic, aggressive. He never was an inert 
observer. His legal equipment was complete — learned in \h& 
intricacies of the law and parliamentary procedure, he main- 
tained through a long yet for his years a brief career the high 
standing and well deserved distinction he so ably won in his 
first Congressional term. 

His arguments were always scholarly, clear, concise, con- 
vincing, and conclusive, full of information, illustrated by his 
study, his teachings, and his experiences. His rich mental 



Life and c 'karacter of John Edu <ard Kenna. 97 

gifts were nature's profuse and generous offerings, but he 
builded a greal and sale superstructure by a life of study and 
tireless toil. 

lie waited while he labored. He had keen sympathies, wide 

vision, positive energy. Few men of his years have tilled so 
distinguished a place in either the House or the Senate. He 
was a true friend. 

Unequaled as a representative for his State, a Senator strong 
and wise for the natiou's future, one whom, had the allotted 
three score, years and ten been given, would have been classed 
among the ablest of our statesmen and leaders. He was ca 1 led 
before the measure of his life work had been completed. His 
coming to us and his going from us so young is a part of the 
great mystery. We know he did much, and what he did was 
well done. That is all we know. The whence and the whither 
is not for us to solve. Tears to his memory. His work will 
live. The people of his own State will do him honor and justice. 

He is gone. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Nothing can he 
leave of the force that made his own being here. God accept 
him; Christ receive him. 



Address of Mr, Hooker, of Mississippi, 

Mr. Speaker: When I was approached the other day by my 
friend and colleague from West Virginia [Mr. Alderson] with 
the request that I would say something on this occasion, when 
we meet to pay our last respects to our dead friend, the distin- 
guished Senator from West Virginia, I said to him that I would 
and that it would give me pleasure to add a few words to those 
which may be spoken here tonight by those who come from 
his own immediate vicinity and who know his public and 
private life probably better than 1 do. 
S. Mis. (!('» 7 



98 Address oj Mr. Hooker^ of Mississippi^ on the 

1 was a member of the Congress to which Mr. Kenna was 
first elected, and 1 remember well the impression which lie 
made upon that Congress when he first became a member <>i' 
this House. 

lie had a very marked character, and in the course of tin- 
six years during which he served in the House of Representa- 
tives he carved out for himself a position second to that held 
by no man in either of the Congresses in which he served. 

He was a descendant of that distinguished race of people 
of whom it has been said they have successfully fought the 
battles of all countries save their own; from that great race of 
people who have furnished to the British Empire her greatest 
premiers and her greatest soldiers. He came of Irish descent. 

His father. Edward Kenna, came to this country in very 
early life, when he was only a lad of a boy, aud did his first 
service here in my own State of Mississippi, where he lived in 
the household and worked in the factory of the La Costas on 
the banks of the Mississippi River at Natchez. He was there 
when the great tornado of 1840 swept over that beautiful city, 
and was fortunate enough to be one of the survivors of that 
memorable catastrophe. 

From that place he went to the city of Cincinnati, and there 
falling in company with one of her distinguished and liberal 
minded lawyers, though Mr. Kenna was poor and had no 
resources, that lawyer. Mr. Pox, gave him the use of his library 
and advised him to pursue the practice of the law. 

He entered upon that practice, and shortly afterward, in the 
county of Kanawha, in the State of Virginia, married .Miss 
Lewis, who was a lineal descendant of the celebrated Gen. 
Lewis, of western Virginia, so well known to the history of that 
State. 

From this marriage sprung the friend to whom we come to 
pay these honors tonight. His father died at an early age, 



Life and C 'haracter of John Edit ard A', nna. 99 

leaving the mother and the young orphan son, the eldest of 
three children, and two daughters. 
Before the war they moved to the State of Missouri, where 

relatives of .Mrs. Kemia lived, and our friend was there when 
the war between the States began. He volunteered in one of 
the cavalry regiments of Missouri, famous under the leader 
ship of the gallant Sterling Price and Gen. Bowen, whose 
remains now lie buried in my own county in Mississippi, and 
the brave and distinguished Cockrill, all leading the .Missouri 
forces. 

This boy, only sixteen years of age, volunteered in the Con 
federate cause. 

He was received by his comrades in the camp with the tender 
care which his age naturally suggested. Severely wounded in 
one of the conflicts between the scouting parties of the oppos- 
ing forces, his friends insisted that he should be left in the rear, 
but he said no, and renewing the bandages upon his wounds 
when he would stop at night, he refused to be considered a dis- 
abled soldier and remained in the ranks. 

He served to the close of the war. and was paroled at Shreve- 
port, La. He returned thence to his native county, Kanawha, 
to which his mother had again removed from Missouri, and 
entered upon the serious duties of life at the termination of the 
great conflict between the States, when the beard of manhood 
had scarcely yet appeared upon his cheeks. 

His education, of course, had been greatly neglected, and he 
concluded that this was the opportunity for him, if it should 
ever occur; so he went to Cincinnati: but feeling that the slim 
resources that his father's fortune had left the mother, brother, 
and two sisters to secure that education, that great, big, tfoble- 
hearted Bishop Whelan offered him an opportunity to enter St. 
Vincent's College, in Wheeling, which lie entered: and there 
tor two and a half years he received the only education he may 



](><> Address of Mr. /looker, of Mississippi, on the 

be said to have had. Returning to his native county, he 
entered upon the practice of his profession, and at an early 
age was elected district attorney of the district in which he 
lived. 

Here he came into contact and in conflict with the great law- 
yers of West Virginia who were leaders at the bar, and achieved 
for himself great and noted distinction as a lawyer before he 
entered this House. It will be remembered that when he first 
put his foot inside these halls he had not yet reached the age 
of thirty. He came in at a memorable period of the country's 
history. II" came in when distinguished men sat upon this 
floor, with age and long experience in public affairs, and he 
took a position at once in the forefront of the great debaters 
of the House. 

I remember very well to have read in his history of a tribute 
paid him by that wonderful man who was about going out of 
public life when Mr. Kenna came into this Hall. That man — 
a wonderful genius, a great power, whose voice had been heard 
in the old House of Representatives — when, m the prime of 
his manhood, he stood up and in thunder tones spoke for the 
right and for the great principles to which he was devoted ; 
that man whom all the old members of this House remember. 
sat. unable to stand, in a rolling chair, which was his constant 
scat, immediately in front of the Speaker; who never lifted his 
voice in this Hall that there was not a hushed silence on both 
sides this Chamber and in the galleries, for every word he spoke 
was a word of wisdom, purity, and uprightness. 

It was the great Georgian, Alexander Stephens. And when 
Mr. Kenna. a young member, had asked him to do him the 
favor to write his name in his album. Mr. Stephens gave in 
these words the impression which the young Representative 
from West Virginia had made upon him. 



Life and C 'haracter of John Edward A'< una. L01 
I [e addresses him ;is follows: 

Hon. John I'.. Kknn.v. of West Virginia: 

Dear Sik: Yoti request mj autograph in this album. This request, of 
course, I most cheerfully grant, but in doing i1 you must allow me to prefix 
the autograph with a few words expressive of the gratification afforded 
me from the acquaintance with you formed in this House soon after the 
organization of the Forty-fifth Congress. 

Your debui as a debater on the 5th of December last, in which you 
clearly and successfully maintained the rights of your committee in the 
distribution of public business, will never i>e forgotten by me. 

The very favorable impression made liy that ilrlml was greatly increased 
by your conduct of the first bill under your charge in the House. 

That was only two days ago. This was the bill in relation to the W I 

ruff scientific expedition around the world. 

It was your first bill. It was a measure of great public importance, and 
the manner in which you so skillfully and successfully conducted it to its 
final passage, deservedly, allow me to say, won for you not only my own, 
but the admiration of the House. Please take- these reminiscences as mat- 
ters not inappropriate in complying with your request. Let them go with 
the autograph. 



Voms truly. 



House of Representatives, 

January 31, 1S7S. 



Alexander II. Stephens, 
Mi nthir of Congress, of Georgia. 



This was the tribute, Mr. Speaker, paid by an extraordinary 
man, himself about to cease to mingle with public affairs and 
soon to pass away. It was a wonderful tribnte, paid by a 
great departing statesman to one who was just entering the 
arena of conflict. Alexander Stephens was a great man whose 
sun was about to sink behind the western horizon, while 
Kenna's was just appearing above the east, and the great 
statesman, departing, recognized in the young man who had 
come into this House where he had been an aged and experi- 
enced member that promise which was eventually so completely 
and perfectly realized by him. 

Mr. KENNA was reelected to the next Congress, though al 
that time in feeble health and unable to engage in the canvass,' 
by great unanimity of the convention ol his own party, and by 



L02 Address of Mr. Hooker, of Mississippi^ on the 

an additional increased majority ;it the polls in November. 
While he was in this second Congress, a measure of great 
importance to the country at large, in which all the States of 
the Union were taking a great interest, came up to be con- 
sidered. Ir was with reference to one of the great parallel 
lines of railroads running across the continent from east to 
west. 

The legislature of West Virginia had instructed her dele- 
gates in Congress to support the Texas Pacific Railroad, a liill 
then pending in this House. Mr. Kenna, after a very thorough 
investigation of this bill, determined he could not conscien- 
tiously give it his support, and wrote to one of the senators of 
the body which had adopted the resolution of instructions, and 
concluded his letter in the following words, that may be of 
much significance to many of you in this connection, in regard 
to a great measure of public duty which the people have passed 
upon so recently. 

He said to his friend in the senate: 

To support this measure on my part would be to violate tin- solemn 
pledges which I have made all hundred times over to the people of my dis- 
trict. I have nnt denounced subsidies to come here and support theni. 

I have not raised my voice in opposition to class legislation against the 
interests ami lights of the masses to come here and lend my voice to the 
consummation of that very work. 

I have not joined in the indignation of my people at the stupendous power 
ami corruption of the American lobby to come here and surrender myself 
helplessly into its hands. 

For my own part, I shall carry out faithfully every pledge I have made 
to our people. 

I shall protect and defend their rights and interests in every manner, 
and with every faculty, however humble, with which it has pleased God 
to endow me. 

With that view and in discharge of that obligation I can not ami will 
uo1 support this bill nor any other measure involving its principles, its 
policy, or its practice. 

It was a bold stand for a young man who was serving his 
second term in Congress to take against the unanimous action 



Life andi. 'haracter of John Edward Kenna. 103 

of the legislature of his own state, but he was rewarded for 
that adelity t<» duty and thai allegiance to principle which 
distinguished him thru and ever aiterwardsas long as he lived 
on earth. The legislature reversed its action and vindicated 
its determined Representative, who had had the courage of Ids 
convictions to oppose a measure which had the popular sanc- 
tion. 

Mr. Kenna's service in this Hall was of sucn a character 
that after three terms Ins people, though he was still a very 
young man, thought he ought to be transferred to the other 
branch of the National Legislature. But. Mr. Speaker, I maj 
be permitted to allude to one other event in his history as a 
Representative before I proceed to consider his career as a 
Senator. It was a very memorable one, and the gentleman 
who lias been acting as temporary Speaker during the early 
part of this evening, as well as many others whom I see before 
me, will remember the occurrence. 

It was in the Forty-seventh Congress when he had that 
wonderful conflict with the then Speaker of the House. Mr. 
Kenna was nominated as a Representative in the Forty- 
seventh Congress by acclamation, and if was in that Congress 
that the memorable passage at arms occurred between him 
and Mr. Keifer, the then Speaker of the House. 

The Speaker had reprimanded Mr. Money, a Representative 
from the State of Mississippi. 

"Can it be," exclaimed Mr. Kenna, "that the Speaker 
essayed to reprimand a representative of the people in the 
absence of action by the House .'" 

The affirmative of this was vehemently insisted upon, accom- 
panied with applause by those who shared the Speaker's con 
victions on this subject. Mr. Kenna thereupon ottered a reso- 
lution reciting what had occurred and providing for prompt and 
heroic treatment of the subject. His resolution was received 



in} Address of Mr. Hooker, oj Mississippi, on the 

with profound silence which became, if possible, more intense 
as the statement preceding it. which supported it. was read. 
But the Speaker receded from liis asserted authority, and the 
resolution was withdrawn amidst the applause of the House 
whose dignity and character it had maintained. 

Such. Mr. Speaker, was the character of the services of Mr. 
Kenna in this Bouse. He was soon transferred to the other 
branch of the National Legislature, and there, though he came 
into the Senate when such men as Thurman and Beck sat upon 
the Democratic side, and Sherman and Logan and other great 
debaters on the other, he sprang into the first rank in that 
grave body of debaters and statesmen and thinkers. 

On more than one occasion he measured lances with the 
ablest men of the Senate, and particularly on the occasion 
when the course of the then President of the United States, 
drover Cleveland, was challenged by the action of the Senate 
in refusing to send to the Senate the papers upon which his 
appointments rested. On that occasion the appointments to 
office of Mr. Cleveland, more than a thousand in number, were 
suspended for a long while under the adverse action of the 
Senate, insisting that they were entitled to have those papers 
before the action of confirmation was taken. 

It was on that occasion that the young Senator from "West 
Virginia made the memorable speech of his life, which placed 
him side by side with the great debaters of the Senate. The 
manner in which he spoke, the character of the audience he 
addressed, and the effect which he produced are so much better 
narrated by his biographer than I could speak it that I maybe 
pard sd bj the House if I read a paragraph giving a descrip- 
tion of that speech and its effect: 

Mr. Kenna's sp li mi this occasion was exhaustive, and the audience 

which confronted hini, embracing substantially both Houses of Congress, 
.is well :is the visions \s In i crowded tin' galleries, was one of the most dis- 
tinguished that ever assembled in the great Chamber. The liistory of the 



Life and C 'haracter of John Edward Kama. 105 

subject was reviewed from Washington, through successive administra- 
tions, to Cleveland. The review was elaborate, coherent, caustic. The 
utterances of Washington, Madison. Jackson, Webster, and of .loliu Sher- 
man, while Secretary of the Treasury, wnc invoked with commanding 
power, and the incidents of Johnson's administration, with the contem- 
poraneous records of Blaine, Sherman, Edmunds, Logan, and others, were 
exhibited with an effect which aroused and swayed the vast audience. 

The constitutional feature was argued and presented with precision, 
clearness, and simplicity, and, withal, the speech was strongest lor its 
dignity and fairness. It is the ablest of the productions of its author, 
and upon it his friends would be quite willing that his standard should 
lie measured. For three hours and twenty minutes Mr. Kkxna held the 
undivided attention of the remarkable gathering which surrounded him, 
and concluded amidst the most cordial demonstrations of applause. 
Thenceforward, to the close of the Cleveland administration, he was 
recognized among its strongest bulwarks and lust defenders. 

Mr. KJENKA was a man of sturdy physical constitution and 
of sturdy brain power. He reaped the reward of obedience to 
that decree of the Master from which none of us can escape, 
which is written in the eternal law, that by the sweat of our 
faces we shall earn our bread— a law that applies not alone 
to the muscle and the thew and the sinew and the bone and 
the blood of the laboring man, but applies with equal power to 
the brain of the man of thought and study and reflection. 
< Obedience to this law from early youth made him what he was. 

Kesidence in the country where he lived naturally made him 
so, for he had lived in that country which is probably one of 
the most beautiful regions of our great and beautiful land. He 
lived on the banks of the Kanawha, rushing through the Alle 
ghauy Mountains, and watched its turbid force sweeping the 
bowlders from the center of the stream and lashing the rock- 
ribbed shores on either side, sweeping down to the ocean. It 
was possibly from such acclivity as the Hawks Nest, and 
looking at this wonderful waste of power the young statesman 
said, " Can we not utilize these great forces of nature ? " And 
when he came into the Halls of Congress he proposed those 
bills which finally were formulated and enacted and recorded 



106 Address of Mr. Hooker, of Mississippi, on the 

upon the statute books, which gave To West Virginia, through 
the Kanawha River, slack-water navigation, ami found a 
market for the great black diamonds with which her moun- 
tains arc filled and the great ores that are imbedded in them. 

It was natural, therefore, that he should become a man of 
great physical power and great mental power. lie delighted 
in thechase. He delighted in outdoor exercise. A she walked 
over those magnificent meadows of Virginia, over which the 
green carpet Fashioned by the hand of the .Master was spread, 
and looked up into those lofty mountains, sometimes glassed 
in sunshine, and sometimes covered with shadow, and some- 
times the home of the storm-god, it was not unnatural that 
the warp and woof of his mind should partake of the character 
and nature of the great country in which he was born and 
reared. 

1 have now the pleasing memory, Mr. Speaker, of an inci- 
dent which occurred only last summer, when he was already 
strickeu with the fatal malady which carried him to his grave. 
He came from the Senate Chamber and taking his seat by me 
and giving me that cordial shake of the hand which always 
made one feel so happy, and smiling with that smile which 
had the softness of a boy, when last I saw him, he said to me, 
•• 1 have conic to ask you to do me a favor." I said, " What 
is it, Mr. Kenna'" Be said, "I want you to go on the cars 
with me to-night to Charleston, the capital of my State, and 
make an address to the old Confederate veterans to-morrow.'' 
1 said to him, "This is short notice, my friend." He said, 
••Yes; lint I am in trouble about it. I am too ill to speak 
myself, and the friends whom 1 had expected to go are also ill. 
I request as a personal favor to me that you will go with me 
and deliver the address.'' I consented to do it. And I was 
repaid by the fact that he went with me and that when we 
reached Charleston and crossed the bridge to the eastern side 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 107 

of the city, and the veterans who had served with him when 
he was but a boy extended their hands to him (and he knew 
the names of all of them), aud when I saw the eyes of the <>I<1 
soldiers light up with delight and their faces glow with pleasure 
as they saw their boy-comrade coming to fulfill the promise 
which he had made that he would be with them, I was repaid 
for all the trouble of that journey. 

If that had not been sufficient, when I saw the greeting thai 
he received from the audience assembled in the theater, as he 
spoke but a few words, being unable to speak more, 1 was 
again repaid. And I was more than repaid for the labor and 
trouble of travel by seeing that greeting which came from his 
venerable mother. And he said to me when he introduced 
her to me, " I introduce her not only as my mother, for we are 
attached not alone by the ties of loviug mother and dutiful 
son, but we have been life-long companions, counseling and 
advising with one another, and it is as such that I now make 
my mother known to you." 

Such was the character of the man that everybody loved him 
and no good man could be his enemy. He lived amid these 
scenes surrounded by his people, and passed awayatlast, scarce 
arriving at middle age, after having attained all of the honor- 
able posit ions which ambition generally proposes at a later date. 
Ambition with him had been noble, manly, and honorable. 

Ambition with him was not such a passion as that which sways 
the human heart almost from the cradle to the grave, when all 
other passions and emotions are burned to ashes and cinders 
on its altar; but his was a noble, a beautiful, a Christian ambi- 
tion, which was supplemented by that endeavor which forces 
us to be honest and upright; and these influences upheld him 
on all occasions. 

No man within the limits of my knowledge, in the House of 
Representatives, or in the Hall at the other eud of the Capitol, 



108 Address of Mr. Wilson, of Missouri, on the 

tlic Senate has won for himself a distinction greater, more 
deserving, or more honorable than he whom I am delighted to 
call my friend, the Hon. John Edward Kenna, of West 
Virginia. 



ADDRESS OF MR, WILSON, OF MISSOURI. 

Mr. Speaker : I have no extended* eulogium to deliver over 
the dead Senator from West Virginia. This has been most 
feelingly ami eloquently done by those who have preceded 
me: by Representatives from his own State who had long 
known him and loved him in all the relations of life. I come 
before you on this occasion not only to express my own sincere 
sorrow at the untimely death of this brilliant statesman, but 
to voice the feelings of the people of my own State, of which 
Senator Kenna was at one time a citizen. 

He has but met the common fate of man ; he has paid nature 
the last debt, and now, after life's fitful fever is over, sleeps in 
the bosom of his native State which he loved and sei - ved so well 
in this Hall, as well as in that at the other end of the Capitol. 
In all the weird procession of Senators ami Representatives that 
has passed through these historic halls to the land of shadows, 
there was no kindlier, gentler, braver, brighter, or truer spirit 
than that of John E. Kenna. He was at once the pride of his 
State, and the best beloved of its people. 

Mr. Speaker, 1 was absent from the Capitol when told by the 
lightning that Senator KENNA had fallen at his post of duty: 
that after heroically battling in the unequal struggle tor life 
with the arch enemy of the race \\ ith the same sublime courage 
that characterized all his efforts, from the plow handle of the 
farmer boy on the primeval prairies of Missouri to a proud seat 
in the United States Senate, he had at last been vanquished, 



Life and I liaractcr o/ John Edward Kenna. 1 ' >! • 

but, like the splendid knight that he was, had fallen at his post 
of duty and with his armor on. 

At the earliest practicable hour after taking my seat in the 
Fifty-first Congress I sought out Senator Kenna and made his 
personal acquaintance. I did so because he was regarded with 
affection by the people of my own State, among whom he had 
lived some of the most delightful years of his life. I had so 
often heard from the lips of his comrades, and especially from 
those of his old commander, the story of his daring life, when 
as a boy-soldier he flashed his saber always to the front on 
the battle day, in the invincible brigade led by the Murat of 
the Confederate army in the trausinississippi department — the 
impetuous Shelby. 

I had heard from those who had shared his blanket in the 
cheerless bivouac and who had swept to the charge with him, 
when death was so close he could " hear the very beat of its 
wing,' 1 of his gentleness in camp, and of his heroism upon the 
field, that I wanted to take him by the hand and to tell him 
how the "old boys" still remembered and loved him. I did 
so; it gave him undisguised satisfaction, and from that day 
until the day of his death I entertained for John E. Kenna 
the most affectionate regard. 

When the old monarch of the forest, after having for more 
than a century braved the storms until scarred by the envious 
lightning and riven by the fierce winds, hastens to decay, and 
when no longer able to hold up its withered arms falls heavily 
to the earth, it stirs the heart to melancholy sadness; but when 
the giant oak, towering aloft in the glory of perfect strength 
and rejoicing in its vigorous growth, is rudely stricken by the 
fury of the elements and lies prone upon the protesting earth, 
it arouses the deepest sorrow at the untimely fall. 

And so it is with this splendid man. His death was 
untimely, both for his country and for those who loved him. 



lio Address of Mr. Wilson, of Missouri, <>>i the 

Be had scarce lived out half the measure of his days as allotted 
by the Psalmist. He was in the very meridian of life, in the 
lull flush of glorious manhood, when stricken down. But not- 
withstanding his early death. Senator KennA had accomplished 
a long lifetime of deeds — good deeds — sufficient to make his 
life illustrious. 

Hi' went out, as you and 1 will go, Mr. Speaker, when the sum- 
Dions comes, alone into the darkness, and silently embarked 
upon the shoreless sea. 

Did he go to the deathless solitude of forgetfulness in the 
bosom of the earth as does the giant young oak when prema- 
turely and rudely broken, or is he not at this very moment 
beyond the stars, realizing the promises of the lowly Nazareue 
given to those who should follow in His ways? 

There are moments in the lives of the wisest and best when, 
scourged with doubt as to whether "it is all of life to live and 
all of death to die," we tremble as we contemplate our inevi- 
table departure to that undiscovered country from which not 
one single, solitary explorer has ever returned to tell to the 
living the tale of his travels. 

This awful thought has agitated the breasts of men through 
all the ages, and nowhere have. I found the aspirations of the 
human heart better expressed in its solacing reflections than 
by Cato. When soliloquizing he says: 

Plato, thou reasonest will! 

Else whence this pleasing hope, 1 1 1 1 ^ fond desire, 

this longing after immortality .' 
Or whence this secret dread and inward horror 
Of falling into naught .' Why shrinks the soul 
Back on itself, and startles :it destruction? 
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us. 

In Statuary Hall, under the Dome of this Capitol, can be 
found the marble effigies of many of the great men who shed 
undying luster upon the history of our country — statesmen 



Life and ( liarachr of John Edward Kenna. 1 1 1 

and soldiers — and it does honor to the Commonwealth he 
served and gives consolation to those who loved him to know 
that the departed statesman whose memory I now recall and 
whose bright virtues L now recount will soon be perpetuated 
in enduring marble and occupy a place in this American 
Pantheon, where, though mute, it shall survive as long as this 
temple shall stand to eloquently proclaim to the youth of 
America the wonderful possibilities guaranteed to them by 
the spirit of our institutions, be they rich or poor, high or 
lowly horn. 



address of Mr. Pendleton, of West Virginia. 

Mr. Speaker: It strikes me that it would cost one little 
trouble to speak words of fitting eulogy on the life and charac- 
ter of the late John E. Kenna. Everyone who knew him knew 
that his character was beyond reproach, and that he stood as 
more than a peer among the greatest men of his own State. 

I did not know him so well or intimately as my colleague 
from the Third district of the State of West Virginia, but I 
shall never forget the occasion upon which I first met him. 

More than seventeen years ago I had an engagement with 
a young friend of mine to call upon a young lady in the city of 
Wheeling. I went to the hotel where we were to meet in 
order to make that call. I found there with my young friend 
a tall, stately, and distinguished looking young man, who was 
then introduced to me as John E. Kenna, of the county of 
Kanawha, in the State of West Virginia, I am glad that we 
made that call together. 

Mr. Kenna proposed that he should accompany us, which 
he did, and, as the result of that call, in a little more than one 



1 12 Address of Mr. Pendleton, o/U 'est I 'irginia, on the 

year thereafter thai young lady became the wife of the dis- 
tinguished gentleman, afterwards Senator from the State of 
West Virginia. 

From that time I became interested in that young man. I 
studied his career as that of a man likely to win for himself a 
reputation among the statesmen of our country. Attheage 
of twenty seven years he was elected to represent the Third 
Congressional district of the State of West Virginia in the 
House of Representatives of the United States, and after serv- 
ing his State for a period of six years iu the House of Repre- 
sentatives, so distinguished was his conduct, so proud had our 
people become of the reputation he had won for himself here, 
that when he had been elected by nearly 7,000 majority to 
serve his constituents for a fourth term upon the floor of the 
House of Representatives he was by almost the unanimous 
vote of his own party promoted to the Senate of United States, 
where, after a service of distinguished honor, of grand and 
magnificent attainments, he was finally called to that bourne 
whence no traveler returns. 

Sixteen years in the Congress of the United States, he had 
hardly reached the age of forty- four years. At that period of 
life if Julius Csesar had departed to the unknown world, he 
would not have filled a page of history. If Napoleon Bona- 
parte had gone to the unknown land he would not have fought 

the battle of Water! have lost the throne of the great empire 

of modern times, or spent days of exile on the island of St. 
Helena. 

It had been my intention, sir, upon an occasion of this charac- 
ter, to indulge in remarks of greater length than I shall offer to 
the House to-night. But I know the pressing condition of the 
public business that is called to the attention of this body. 1 
know also that there are other distinguished gentlemen, as dis- 
tinguished and eloquent as those who have preceded me, who 



Life and Character of John Edward Kcnna. 113 

desire to pay their tribute to West Virginia's must distinguished 
son. And 1 feel that if I should detain yon long to listen to 
any words that I may utter in commemoration of John E. 
Kenna, I should do violence to your patience and trespass 
upon your time. 

In the brief time allotted to us 1 feel that you would rather 
listen to others who can better eulogize or more fascinatingly 
attract. His spirit is here to night, where, he formerly was 
foremost in debate and easily first in parliamentary struggle; 
and his name will long be remembered here as an inspiration 
to us to do much and dare all in every just and noble cause. 
His early- won fame will excite the emulation of the young and 
will teach them that youth is no bar to progress or to lofty 
achievement. The respect we all feel for him tells the way to 
win it for ourselves, while his early struggles and final success 
indicates to all what may be done by pluck, energy, and talent. 

All can not reach Kenna'.s reputation; all may not attract 
the affection lavished upon him, but we can live in the light 
of his great example and follow as best we may where he has 
led. In striving to be like him, we shall best honor his memory 
and do no little for ourselves. 

This feeble tribute does him but little justice, and will give 
to the future but an ill-drawn picture of West Virginia's 
favorite son. 

But I feel that however great W r est Virginia's sons may be in 
the future, however grand may be the reputation that they may 
win for themselves, whatever proclamation may be made for 
them by the wide trumpet of renown, it will be many long years 
before either the Ilouse of Eepresentatives or the Senate of the 
United States will look again upon the like of John E. Kenna. 
And I am sure that while our mountains rear their lofty crests 
toward the heavens, while our valleys continue green, and 
while West Virginians remember the history and achieve- 

S. Miss. (50 8 



1 14 Address of Mr. Covert, of New York, on tlic 

incuts of their distinguished sons, grand among the great, glo- 
rious among the good, and forever remembered will be the 
cherished uame of John Edward Kenna, of West Virginia. 



Address of Mr. Covert, of New York. 

.Mr. Speaker: My friend from West Virginia [Mr. Aldek- 
si in], who so loyally and gracefully and eloquently opened these 
proceedings, needed not to apologize for any supposed extrav- 
agance of utterance. Too much can not be said in the direc- 
tion of praise and eulogy of John E. Kenna. There are 
occasions when the lips are dumb and when the heart speaks 
only. A cordon of devoted friends in this Chamber have 
spoken and are yet to speak in what phrase they may of him 
who. living, was loved as man is rarely loved by men. But a 
language deeper and much more eloquent has been and will 
be left unspoken. These unuttered words, this unite language, 
the hearts of us all keep closely guarded within, as much too 
sacred for utterance. 

Perhaps all sadness is in a sense selfish, and thedeepest sor- 
row the greatest selfishness. When one who has been eminent 
in his country's service is taken from us in the midst of his 
usefulness, the larger loss to the land is not the first reflection 
that comes to those who were closely associated with him who 
has gone. The knowledge that we shall miss the warm hand 
clasp — that we shall hear no more the kindly voice and that we 
shall on earth never again stand in the presence of our com 
panion and friend: these are the thoughts that first come to 
us — this personal reflection is our first and greatest grief. 

Not his district and his State alone recoguize the brilliant 
intellectual qualities of John E. Kenna. The whole countrj 
acknowledged his preeminent ability. Hut it did not know 



Life and Character of Joint Edi\ ard Kenna. I 1 5 

linn as we knew him — we who were his close and attached 
friends. The whole land admired Into; but love, warm and 
devoted, was mingled with our admiration. 

Not anywhere in the pages of romance, not anywhere in the 
legends which tell of chivalry and knighthood, can be found 
passages challenging our admiration more strongly than do 
the achievements which make up the life story of him who 
has gone from us. 

John E. Kenna was literally the child of the State. The 
community in which he lived adopted him when a poor and 
friendless orphan boy, protected him in his youth, and pro- 
moted him as his deserviug demanded advancement. And 
never did devoted son make fuller and more loyal return to 
loving mother than did Senator Kenna to the State he served. 
He gloried in her material prosperity, a condition he labored 
most zealously to advance, and he loved her mountains, her 
valleys, and her streams. More than all else, he loved her 
people, and in their behalf no effort was too exacting, no labor 
too arduous. 

At the coining together of the Forty-fifth ( -ongress his State 
sent as one of her Representatives here this broad-browed 
young man. with a soul as pure as her own mountain streams 
and a heart as generous and as loyal as ever throbbed on earth. 
At once he took front rank in the galaxy of brilliant young 
men and bright new members that helped to make that Con- 
gress memorable in parliamentary annals. The rest of the 
history of his comparatively brief life has been told us to-night 
and is known to the people of the whole land. The records of 
this House and of the Senate of the United States show how 
faithfully he labored, not only for the people whose immediate 
representative he was, but for the triumph of those principles 
and practices of government in which he sincerely believed. 

He had a firm and unyielding faith in his fellow-men. Indeed. 



1H! Address of Mr. Covert, of New York, on the 

his character was a most exquisite and harmonious blending 
of qualities, each one most admirable in itself. The generous 
heart of the impulsive boy and the brain of the intellectual 
giant were both his, and a pervading cheerfulness and bright- 
ness were with him qualities of heart and mind alike. 

Indeed, it may be said of Senator Kenna as it was spoken 
of a distinguished French author, that whatever might have 
been the conditions that surrounded him, "he went through 
lite with a smile in his soul." 

In my room the other evening a mutual friend speculated 
with me upon what Mr. Kenna's life would have been had 
it been lived in another land than ours. Proud of his Irish 
ancestry, had his lot been cast on the other side of the ocean he 
would doubtless have been found in the forefront of the battle 
for the larger liberty of the land of his fathers; and in a con- 
test such as this he would have been the champion of cham- 
pions, for John E. Kenna believed in the fullest possible free- 
dom of thought and action. "He was a bigot only in his 
hatred of bigotry." 

Whatever he might have accomplished under other condi- 
tions and with other environments, it is well for us that the 
land of his birth and of his home was free America. His life 
record should teach us many lessons, and it has surely served 
as a guide and chart to others. It shoidd encourage any father 
in this land, however poor and lowly he may be, laudably ambi- 
tious for the future of his boy, to say to him: '• I may not be 
able to leave you any fortune, I may have no money to bequeath 
to you when I am gone. I may not leave to you a 'claim of long 
descent,' but I can leave to you and I will leave to you that 
most priceless of all legacies, the heritage of American citi- 
zenship, with all its glorious possibilities." And the bright, 
ambitious boy, looking to the life story of John E. KennA. 
will thereafter see fewer "lions in the path" and fewer thorns 



Life and c 'haracter of John Edward Kenna. 1 1 7 

in the way as he struggles onward and upward toward the rcali 
zation of his ideals. 

Reference has been made by the gentleman who preceded me 
[Mr. Pendleton] to the fact that Senator Kenna died at an 
age when most great men had not achieved their highest meas 
lire of distinction. It is true indeed that with him the sun had 
set before it was midday. But — 

Better fifty years of Europe 
Than a cycle of Cathay. 

Better — infinitely better — the short span lived by John E. 
Kenna, amid the honorable activities of life, than lengthened 
days passed within narrower environments and in the pursuit 
of more sordid ends. 

.lust as a weary child, pillowing its head upon the warm 
bosom of a fond mother, passes to repose, so West Virginia's 
dead Senator rests to-night beneath the sod of the State to 
which he was so devotedly attached, for whose advancement he 
labored, and in whose service he died. He had lived an earnest, 
noble life. He still lives, and will live while memory lasts, in 
the hearts of countless friends, while imperishable history will 
forever keep his memory green. 



ADDRESS OF MR. CARUTH, OF KENTUCKY. 

Mr. Speaker: I esteem it an honor to pay a tribute of 
respect to the memory of so distinguished a statesman as 
John E. Kenna, of West, Virginia. 

It was at the close of the Congressional elections of 18S6 
that I sought to regain health and strength, after the toils and 
cares of a political contest, which had ended by my being 
accredited here as a member of this body. On the train on 



118 Address of Mr. Carut/i, of Kentucky^ on the 

which I journeyed to the seashore 1 first met the man whose 
untimely death a nation mourns. Of course I knew him by 
reputation. Indeed he was. during the contest which had jusl 
ended, at the head of the Congressional executive committee 
of the party whose candidate I had been in the district in 
which 1 lived. 

This alone would have attracted my attention to him; hut 
when to this was added my knowledge of the fact that he had 
served three terms in the lower House — its youngest member — 
and had so won fame and honor that his people had. after 
electing him for the fourth time to a scat in this body, chosen 
him, before he had even entered upon that term, as a Senator 
from his State, and when 1 recalled the further fact that, 
although the youngest member of that dignified body of states 
men, he had at once taken rank and forged to the front as 
legislator and as lawyer, I was prepared to admire and respect 
him. No man was more congenial or cordial in the intercourse 
of private life. 

I was of course charmed and fascinated by his personality, 
and before that journey terminated there had sprung up 
between us an acquaintance which soon became friendship, 
a friendship rendered neater and dearer as the months and 
years ripened and died into the past. 

It was my misfortune to be stretched on a bed of illness in 
my Kentucky home when the news Hashed over the wires that 
this man, who had made his name renowned and his State dis- 
tinguished, hail been called from the {tains and sufferings of 
life to the rest eternal. I could not stand by the bier of my 
friend, or pay the last mournful tribute the living can pay the 
dead, but my heart went out in sorrow to that loving wife, to 
the dear children who had thus been bereft, and 1 mourned 
over the loss to his State and his country. Tie was stricken 
down full of honors, but not full ol years. 



Life and Character oj John Edward Kenna. 1 1!> 

! have sometimes thoughl it is well to die as Kenna died, 
whilst the laurel on his brow was green and fresh, and not to 
linger on till the wreath has withered, until one's days of use 

fulness are over, and he --lags superfluous on the stage." 
Kenna died before forty-five years of lite were his. Be had 
been soldier, lawyer, Congressman, Senator, and in every sta- 
tion of lite lie had so discharged his duty as to win the esteem 
and admiration of his fellows. It was a wonderful career! 

Some of the scenes of his eventful life pass now before my 
mind's eye. I see him the fatherless boy at eight, thoughtful 
of mother and of sisters, looking forward to the time when 
they should lean for support upon his loving arm. I see him at 
sixteen, listening to the call of duty and offering his services, 
if needs be his life, to the cause he had espoused. I see him 
returning, after the banner he had helped to bear aloft was 
trailed in the dust of defeat, impoverished, but yet full of cour- 
age, determined that success should yet be his, determined 
that he — 

Would not. die like a dull worm — to rot. 
Thrust, foully into earth, to be forgot; 

but that his name and his fame should outlive his life. I see 
him building his own fire, cooking his own food, working late 
into the night to equip himself for the practice of his chosen 
profession. I see him, the young lawyer, chosen by his people 
to prosecute the offenders against justice, upholding with elo- 
quence and with power the majesty of the law. 

Before me, too, appears this great scene in his life. When 
a beardless stripling he aunounced himself a candidate for a 
seat in this body. His neighbors, who had known him long, 
but who thought wisdom could come oidy with years and 
knowledge with gray hairs, shook their heads and said: "He 
is too young, too inexperienced. 1 ' 



120 Address of Mr. CarutJi, of Kentucky, on the 

Doubtless at this time, he had hours of deepest sorrow, when 
he yearned for the encouragement of a friendly voice, the 
strength of a friendly hand. These were times when despair 
seized his soul and hope seemed dead. Alas! how great was 
the struggle. 

For who can tell bow hard it is to climb 
The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar? 

Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime 
lias felt the influence of malignant star 

And waged with fortune an eternal war? 

The brave, ambitious, and determined spirit of John E. 
Kenna did not yield to despair, but facing that people he told 
the pathetic story of his life; he pictured his struggles and 
his hopes, and opposition melted before him. Me came to the 
House; he won the praise of his elders; he gained the love of 
his people. He was sent to the Senate, age respected him; 
wisdom acknowledged his fellowship; the Senators admired 
him. His sun of glory was shining; it could be dimmed only 
by the darkness of death. 

Unlike many of those who have risen to distinction among 
their fellow-men, he lost none of those personal traits which 
endear them to those about them, but loved to mingle with 
them on the most social and friendly terms. 

With him life was not made to be a dreary, forbidding 
thing, but bright and beautiful and happy. He felt that it 
was our duty in lite — 

To pluck the flowers that round us blow, 
Scattering our fragrance as we go— 

and all who knew him will bear testimony that he made the 
lite of those with whom he associated brighter and happier 
when he was with them. 

John E. Kenna was an orator, not one of those who depend 
upon rhetorical aits tor effect, and study pretty phrases to 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 121 

please the ear, but one gifted with the eloquence of earnest- 
ness and the power of speech which moves the hearts and 
judgment of men. The records of this House and the Senate 
contain upon their pages the evidence of his power as a 
speaker. He touched no subject which he did not illuminate 
with his wisdom, and men who listened to his utterances were 
made wiser by the hearing. 

But the genial, social Kenna — "in wit a man, simplicity a 
child" — is no more. The tender, loving husband, the doting 
father, will sit no more at the family fireside or gather the 
loved ones to his arms. The wise legislator will no more place 
his imprint upon his country's laws. The great orator will no 
more lift his voice in the people's cause on the hustings or in 
Congress halls. Life holds him to earth no more. "The 
mortal has put on immortality;'' the spirit has returned to the 
God who gave it; and eternity will reward with blessings and 
happiness forevermore he whose earthly career- benefited all 
and injured none. 

His body lies in the soil of his native State, but his fame is 
the property of the Republic. 

The people who loved him, the State he honored, will place 
in yonder Memorial Hall between the House and the Senate, 
in both of which bodies he served with so much distinction, 
his marble form; and the youth of America in ages yet to 
co. e will gaze on his features and, remembering his career, 
will take up more cheerfully the burden of life and set out on 
the course before them with renewed courage ami hope. 

He did not seek to gather the wealth of earth. His thirst 
was for fame, not gold. He leaves no riches, such as the 
world counts riches, to wife or children, but he does leave a 
heritage which gold could never buy — a stainless reputation 
and a deathless name. 



1 J'J Address 0/ Mr. Fellows, of New York, on the 



Address of Mr. Fellows, of New York. 

Mr. Speaker: These ast-flyiug moments remind me thar 
the tribute I shall pay to-night must be limited to the utterance 
of very few words. In the busy rush and activity of duty we 
may not even pause too long by the tomb. The obligations we 
owe the living supersede those we owe the dead, and those 
obligations must be discharged, however deep the emotions or 
profound the sentiments which would lead us to express our 
sorrow at the loss of one who has borne so large a part of the 
burden and been so conspicuous in life's battle as he whose 
memory we honor to-night. 

Besides, sir, 1 am not one of those who can bring to an occa- 
sion of this kind that decorum and calm composure which 
should always be the attributes of public speech. Not when I 
stand by the grave which holds all that could die of one I loved 
with a brothel's love, can I command those faculties of brain 
and judgment which will fashion speech to appropriate form. 
Here the heart and the emotion, rather than the intellect, seek 
expression, and it is of the friend and not the statesman I 
speak to-night. 

It was under the direct auspices of Mr. Kenna that I first 
visited West Virginia and became acquainted with her people. 
It was as his .unest at his home, at frequently recurring peri- 
ods since that time, in the political battles which have mar- 
shaled forces in this Republic, that it was my privilege, at his 
fireside and his table, to share his companionship. 1 Learned 
to know him well ; and to those who knew him, that is equiva- 
lent to saying that I loved him very dearly; and one of the 
happiest recollections of my life shall be that I believe JOHN 
I'.. Kf.nna loved me too. It is very much to the credit of any 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 123 

man, whoever he may be, who is found worthy to have shared 
the friendship and affection of John E. Kknna. 

I shall not talk of the statesman. It would lie an unjust 
criticism upon the noble State which invested him with her 
higher dignities to assume lor one moment that he was not 
fully equal to every position to which he was called; but I 
shall speak of him only a moment or two to-nighl as I love 
best to think of him. 

He was a man who won the love of his fellows. I wonder, 
sir, if in the clash of life's mad ambitions, if in the rush of 
the pursuits of which all of us are a part, we ever stop to think 
how much that implies. The honors and distinctions, the loyal 
wreaths of life, its wealth and emoluments, those things which 
most excite and animate men, we understand perfectly well; 
but I am one of those who believe that the gratification of 
every ambition of that kind brings to no individual so much 
of real happiness and contributes to earth not, nearly so much 
of benefaction as the life and career of one who so lives that 
he wins the love and esteem oi others. 

Little children grew up in the presence of John E. Kenna 
and deemed him always their friend; and there can be no 
higher evidence of a man's quality than that. He never went 
to bed at night without the consciousness that lie had assuaged 
some sorrow, alleviated some woe, poured some little of the 
pure wine of life into the cup of someone who otherwise would 
have tasted only life's bitter dregs and lees. 

Others shall speak of him as a statesman. Comrades now 
fast dying will love to recall him as comrade in the bitter hours 
of trial. They will place his marble monument in yonder hall, 
consecrated to the effigies of those whom States deem most 
worthy to honor; but surviving all other distinctions that he 
won, leading the entire procession, they shall write of John 
K. Kenna, as the angel wrote of Hen Adhem, he was one who 
loved his fellow-men. 



124 Address of Mr. Springer, oj Illinois, on the 



Address of Mr. Springer, of Illinois. 

Mr. Speaker: In the closing hours of the last session of this 
Congress, when busiuessof the greatest importance is pressing 
upon ns and demanding every moment of our time, it seems 
almost impossible to pause for sufficient length of time to do 
justice to the deeds and memory of John E. Kenna. But I can 
not permit this occasion to pass, however precious the time may 
be, without contributing my testimony, however briefly it may 
be stated, to the noble character, the spotless integrity, and dis- 
tinguished ability of our deceased friend. 

Surely in the very midst of life we arc in death. Our 
lamented friend has fallen in the prime of manhood, in the 
very hour of his greatest opportunities for usefulness; in a time 
when his State and his country had the greatest reason to 
believe that he would be able to confer lasting blessings upon 
them and meet the highest expectations of his family and 
friends in the attainment of honorable distinction. 

It is a strange and unaccountable Providence that removes 
from our midst those best fitted by training', by ability, and by 
the highest attributes of true manhood for noble work, for 
valuable services in the cause of the state and in behalf of man- 
kind. But we are not presumed to know the mysteries of the 
Infinite, nor is it best that we should know. We must accept 
the Divine decree, knowing' that lie who created us and gave 
us lite and being doeth all things well. 

That life i< long which answere life's greal end. 

We can not measure the life of ,1oiin E. Kenna by the 
years which he lias lived. His deeds, his achievements have 
already answered the great end of life. He was elected a mem- 



Life ami c naracter oj John Edward Kama. 125 

her < if this House when only t wenty-cijiht years ohl, mid was 
transferred to the Senate seven years later, lie had scarcely 
reached the age of forty live when his life's labors were ended. 
We can hardly realize that he has gone from our midst, never 
to return again. 

Many of those about me remember his services as a member 
of this House. We who had the honor to serve witli aim 
remember his many acts of kindness to his fellow-members, 
lie was uniformly kind and urbane to all. He maintained at 
all times a judicial poise, a noble bearing, and a quiet dignity. 
Although one of the youngest if not the youngest member of 
the House, he at once took rank with those of maturer years 
and long experience. He had few equals in debate, and his 
words always commanded the attention of the House. He was 
a forcible speaker, and at times eloquent. But his genial 
manner and kindly treatment of his fellow-members won for 
him the admiration and love of all. 

We sincerely deplore his loss. By his State and country it 
will be deeply felt and long deplored. But to his wife and 
family his loss is irreparable. He was a devoted husband, a 
kind father, a noble friend. 

Our words of eulogy can not 

Soothe the dull cold ear of death. 

Perhaps it may, however, be some consolation to his bereaved 
wife and family to know that others mourn his untimely death ; 
that those who knew him when he was away from the family 
circle also learned to love him; that others will cherish his 
memory; that other hearts bled and other eyes were tilled with 
tears when his spirit took its everlasting flight and his body 
was consigned to the silent tomb. 

But is this all? Are our thoughts to cluster alone about 
his grave, and to contemplate the processes of nature by which 
earth returns to earth, ashes to ashes? No; not so. There is 



12(3 Address oj Mr. Manszir, oj Missouri, on the 

a life beyond the grave; a life which our deceased brother 
lives to-night; a life not broken or marred by partings or 
sighs; ;i life of eternal happiness. May we who still pursue 
our earthly way so improve our opportunities that we may 
live hereafter that better life beyond the tomb. 



ADDRESS OF MR. MANSUR, OF MISSOURI. 

Mr. Speaker : There is mourning in West Virginia. Mourn- 
ing in the valley anil on the mountain top, in cabin, mansion, 
and statehouse; for a mighty man in Israel has fallen; fallen 
in the plenitude of his fame, fallen while yet in the meridian 
of life, fallen while the future was still roseate with honors. 
that needed but time to permit their plucking; for, from past 
deeds achieved, there was nothing in the political arena to 
which John E. Kenna might not have aspired, had three-score 
and ten years crowned his life. 

Away beyond the Father of Waters there is mourning also, 
tor in Carrol] County, in the State of Missouri, in my own dis- 
trict. Senator Kenna resided while a lad, and left that State 
to enter the Confederate service. 

Loving kindred there abide with whom the dead Senator lived 
when a lad: also old settlers, who knew the bright and win- 
some youth, and who in later years crooned with delight as 
they murmured his praise and watched his onward and upward 
flight to greatness. All these, with thousands of others the 
Inion oyer, mourn and lament with the people of West Vir- 
ginia in their sadness. 

lu a recent letter written tome by his uncle, James V. Lewis, 
at present the sheriff of Carroll County, Mo., are given some 



Life and ( 'haracter of John Edward Kenna. 127 

of the incidents and trials of his early life, which I here incur 
porate as a pari of my remarks: 

Cabrollton, Mo., UfarchS, 1898. 

De a is sik : Yours of recent date asking me for a lirief sketch of Johnnie's 
life while in Missouri received yesterday, and in answer would say that 
myself and wife, knowing that sister, Johnnie's mother, then Mrs. Kenna, 
had nothing on which to support herself anil three children, invited lier 
to come to Missouri and make her home with us; and accepting our invi- 
tation, they arrived at our honse, near Lexington, Lafayette County, in 
April, 1858. Johnnie, her only son and eldest child, at that time was !i 
years old. 

We moved to Carroll Count} in 1860 on a raw tract of 240 acres prairie 
land, and Johnnie helped me to improve the farm. He worked hard and 
drove four yoke of oxen drawing a prairie plow. In 1863 or 1864, I think 
it was on one of Gen. Price's raids, some of Shelby's men crossed over on 
the north side of the Missouri River, and Johnnie, still a boy only about 
15 years old, joined them and wont out near whore the town of Norborne 
now stands to capture some federals; and in the right which ensued John 
was shot through the left arm and wounded pretty severely. He came by 
my house that night, and my wife dressed and bandaged his arm and tried 
to get him not to go until his arm was healed, as she loved him as one of 
her own children, but he laughed and said it was not much of a wound; 
that the bone was not broken. 

He went on that night and crossed the river and joined Gen. Shelby's 
command the next day, we hearing nothing more from him until the 
war closed, when he returned to my house, and finding all of us gone 
and learning that bis mother was in Virginia he returned there, having 
accepted the money on which to make the trip from a friend of mine 
acquainted with the circumstances at the time. 

Myself and wife loved Johnnie as one of our own children, he was so 
kind and respectful to us. It really seemed to me that it was a pleasure 
to him to do whatever he could to please us. This is a brief sketch of his 
life while in Missouri. Of his subsequent life you are well acquainted. 
Wishing yon godspeed, I am. 
Yours, respectfully. 

.1. V. Lewis. 

Hon. ('. 11. Mansii:, Washington, I). ('. 

"Johnnie!" To his aged uncle and aunt he is still "John- 
nie," for they "loved him as one of their own children." lor -'it 
was a pleasure for him to do whatever he could to please his 
uncle and aunt.'' There is woe and sorrow in their hearts at 
"Johnnie's" death. In this simple tribute we have the char- 



128 Address of Mr. Mansur^ of Missouri^ on the 

acteristics in the child that later in life made the. man so charm- 
ing, so lovable to nil who knew him. 

In the summer of L865, after the war closed, and after his 
return to ( 'arroll County, Mo., when only a little over seventeen 
years of age, lie applied to Hall & Eads, of < 'arrollton. Mo., 
an eminent firm of lawyers, to study law in their office, and 
made all arrangements to do so. showing an earnest anxiety to 
enter upon his chosen profession. Some two weekslater hegave 
up that intention to return to West Virgina. In this country. 
prolific as it has been of great intellectual careers, there are few 
that shine with greater brilliancy, or where more was achieved 
iinileradverse circumstances or more enduring fame in a shorter 
period of life. 

At eighteen years of age, without money or powerful friends, 
wholly without education, save the simple art of reading and 
writing. In the next twenty-five years lie did this: gained a 
liberal education, was admitted to the bar, became prosecuting 
attorney of the capital county of his State, thence to be judge. 
Representative in Congress, and Senator: to die when not yet 
forty-five years of age. Six years a member of this House and 
ten years in the United States Senate attest the wonderful 
virility of his intellectual powers. 

Fourty-four States adorn the arch of the Union. All save 
West Virginia were born and admitted into the Union in a time 
of peace and by peaceful methods. When a mighty internecine 
war was raging, when two millions of armed men were strug- 
gling for supremacy, when hatred, passion, and malevolence 
tilled the land, West Virginia, by the Csesarean operation of 
war, was cleft from the South — riven from the heart and side 
of Virginia; made an independent sovereign State: admitted 
into the Union to take rank as a loyal commonwealth. 

The great mass of her citizens in unison with the asuuder- 
ing of West Virginia; therefore patriotic, loyal to the Consti- 



Life and Character of John Edward Kenna. 129 

tution and the Union, it is surprising, nay, astonishing, that an 
unlettered, uneducated youth of eighteen who had fought with 
all the fiery zeal of an ardent boy to destroy and overturn that 
cause, that Union, that evoked West Virginia into existence, 
could enter that State, forlorn, penniless, friendless, and unlet- 
tered, overcome that political hatred, dissipate that passion, 
that malevolence, and in the short period of eleven years be 
her trusted representative in the lower House of Congress, and 
six years later, by the loving fealty of her people, their honored 
and adored Senator. 

Mr. Speaker, I know not where to turn tor an illustration of 
greater achievements under more adverse conditions in so short 
a time. Unlettered, he became learned ; friendless, his friends 
were legion; forlorn and penniless, life became brilliant, and 
all the comforts with many of the luxuries of life were his. It 
is the tale of au American Aladdin's lamp. 

Let us hunt for the touchstones that gave light to this Alad- 
din's lamp. John E. Kenna's physical frame was a thing of 
beauty, only iiaralleled by the virile, loving, and acute spirit- 
that inhabited it. Genial, affable, loving in look and manner, 
all became his friends who knew him. A mind that could not 
contemplate a dirty action toward friend or foe, a mind so pure 
that it is doubtful if a deliberately profane or vulgar thought 
ever found a resting place therein ; an intellect that year by- 
year came nearer the infinite as it grew in strength, incisive 
as the lightning, penetrating all questions considered to the 
heart's core, illuminating all propositions discussed, judging 
all matters of statecraft with the wisdom of a statesman and 
the philanthropy of a patriot and philosopher, is it any wonder 
that he was a Senator at thirty five and dying at forty-four is 
lamented by his State with a lamentation that permeates every 
family in her border, his fame to be perpetuated in marble, 
fashioned iu his living image, and placed in this proud Capitol, 
where his greatest renown was won. 
S. Mis. 66 9 



130 Address of Mr. Maiisiir, of Missouri, on the 

Mr. Speaker, 1 have preferred to speak in general terms of 
Lis brilliant career. Personal incidents connected with his life 
in West Virginia and in this city have been so fully stated in 
the Senate and upon this floor that anything- additional upon 
mj part is mere iteration, and done in a less worthy manner 
than by the many distinguished Senators and Representatives 
who have already laid the tribute of their heart's affection and 
of their intellectual greatness upon his bier. 

A personal incident or two, and I have done. When I came 
into this House in the Fiftieth Congress, Senator Kenna 
hunted me and introduced himself — stated in a most affable, 
loving, and captivating manner that he was one of my con- 
stituents — from the fact that he had lived as a boy long years 
in my district, and that he should always consider me as his 
< 'oiigressman. Is it a wonder that from that hour I loved him 
and was his friend ? 

One other incident. He often spoke to me of the land 
broken for his uncle, its beauty and fertility, and especially of 
a tree planted by himself, near the southeast corner of the 
tract. April last, learning I was about to visit Carroll County, 
lie asked me if not too much trouble would I visit that land, 
learn if that tree was still growing, and on my return tell him 
of its condition; for, said he, "I love that tree, I planted it 
with my own hand when no larger than my thumb, anil my 
relatives used to write me how it flourished, but I have not 
heard of it in recent years." I assured him it was no trouble, 
but would be a pleasure. 

In company with his cousin, Sinton Lewis, in May last I 
visited the land. It had just been plowed and carefully har- 
rowed. The entire tract of SO acres was as smooth and level 
as Pennsylvania avenue; not a clod as large as a pint measure 
in sight; the loam black, glistening in the evening sun, fecund 
as ever land was in the delta of the Nile, a sight to make an 



Life and ( 'karacter of John Edward Kama. 131 

agriculturist's heart laugb with its promises of reward for labor 
bestowed. 

Riding from north to south along the eastern border, we 
approached tl Kenna tree." as it is known in all thai local- 
ity, and it, too, was a thing of beauty. 

In that rich, prolific soil, exposed on all sides to the lull 
Strength of the sun and light, the slender twig planted by 
Kkn.vv had become the beautiful, towering, and majestic tree; 
of splendid shape, round topped and well proportioned, there 
it stood, lit) feet in height, full 2 feet in diameter, a noble col 
tonwood that in the hot summer made it a thing of joy to all 
who could gain its restful shade, whether man or beast. It 
stands alone upon the wide prairie, a monument for all the 
region round about. I did not return to Washington until 
about the middle of June last. Soon after I inet Senator Kenna, 
and I told him of the land and of the tree; how it was named 
aud knowni in all that region, and brought kind messages from 
relatives and old settlers who remembered him as a youth. 
For the moment John E. Kenna was a youth again, happy in 
living upon the memories of his boyhood. 

Mr. Speaker, after that I never saw Senator Kenna again. 



Address of Mr. Wilson, of West Virginia. 

Mr. Speaker: I regret that the pressure of public business, 
which can not be avoided or delayed in the closing hours of a 
Congress, does not permit me to bring such a tribute as ] 
could wish to the memory of my deceased colleague. I should 
like to give some narrative of his life and some deliberate, and 
friendly estimate of Mr. Henna's remarkable powers. But I 
have the gratification of knowing that in the eulogies already 
pronounced the main facts of his career, both private and pub- 



132 Address of Mr. II 'i/son, of 11 'est I 'irginia^ on the 

lie, have been recited, and no one could hope to vie with his 
close and lifelong friend, the Representative of his old district, 
in the touching earnestness and affection of his tribute. My 
personal acquaintance with Mr. Kenna began with my Con 
grcssional service. Although we were both natives of the 
same State and active practitioners in her courts, our homes 
were in distant sections, and my own previous contact with 
political life had been so slight that I had not met him until 
I entered the House just as he had been transferred to a seat 
in the Senate. In common with all the people of West Vir- 
ginia, I admired his ability and took pride in the distinction 
he had so quickly and so easily won in that body. 

It did not require any long personal association with Mr. 
Kenna to discover that he was a man richly endowed by 
nature, and that, in a preeminent degree, his endowment fitted 
him for the career to which as by an unerring instinct he had 
early devoted himself. Abounding health, an alert and exceed 
ingly vigorous mind, an ardent and ambitious temperament, a 
disposition eminently kindly and sociable, and an innate and 
therefore irrepressible capacity for leadership, these were a 
part of that endowment. 

At home he was perfectly at case and in close touch with 
the people, he shared with youthful zest in their sports, lie 
enjoyed as few men did the sharp but honorable contest and 
strategic management of politics, and he fought a political 
campaign with the joyous ardor of a born soldier. In Congress, 
as a member of this House or a Senator, lie gave himself with 
an equal zeal and equal mastery to questious of policy and 
statesmanship, and debated them with a power for instruc- 
tion that caused his countrymen to listen to his utterances. 

Mr. Speaker, there was something peculiarly and inexpress- 
ibly pathetic in the gradual wasting away of such superb 
bodily vigor as John E. Kenna possessed until the past year 



Life and ( 'haracter of John Edward Kenna. I '■'•'■'< 

or two. Almost to the last day of his life his friends hoped 
that the decline would be stayed and that they should see him 
once more in the enjoyment of the splendid physical manhood 
that seemed so natural to him. In that hope he long shared. 

I recall tonight how just before the end of the session, in 
August last, he came over from the Senate to talk with me 
about the campaign to be waged in our own State. He was 
the warm personal friend of Mr. Cleveland, and he realized 
that a hard and possibly a decisive battle was to be fought 
in West Virginia. He longed to take his full part in it, and 
believed that after a few weeks rest among his familiar moun- 
tains and at some of their mineral springs, bis old time vigor 
would return, and he would be able to plunge into the thickest 
of the. fight. I encouraged his faith although I could scarcely 
share in his hope. His wasted body and the deep lines which 
suffering had written on his face seemed to mock his cheerful 
and resolute utterances. 

Had he found the health he longed for there is no doubt that 
lie would have led in that battle with more than bis wonted 
vigor and defiance of fatigue. 

Had his life been continued there is no doubt he would have 
kept liis rank among the leaders of his party and with the 
foremost public men of the day. 

His loss is a loss to his country. To bis State ir is a bereave- 
ment, felt and expressed by all classes and divisions of her 
people. 

The SPEAKER. If no other gentleman desires to submit 
remarks, the question is upon agreeing to the resolution. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to. 

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